


Walking after you

by Philefic



Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-15
Updated: 2015-07-15
Packaged: 2018-04-09 11:41:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 48,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4347266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Philefic/pseuds/Philefic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I know that you want me. You may even think that you love me. But it's not real............"</p>
<p>This spins off into an alternate universe somewhere after FTF. You will get the most out of this fic if you have some kind of knowledge about the mythology.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Walking after you

 

“Good morning. Get outta bed. We’re up why they hell aren’t you?”

 

“Haha, that’s no way to speak to our listeners Geoff. Don’t you know they are the ones who keep us in our jobs?”

 

“Ha ha well only those dedicated listeners are up this early anyway.”

 

Michael Thompson was one of them. He loved this cheerful radio show waking him first thing in the morning. He rolled over and gazed upon his sleeping wife, she wasn’t quite so cheery in the mornings. It took a whole lot of coffee to get her up and moving first thing. Every morning presented him with a chance to start fresh. He’d kiss his wife and tell himself he still loved her. He’d text his mistress and tell himself he would leave her. Take two Advil to drown the drum in his head from the expensive scotch he’d consumed the night before and wash it down with a smoothie made with raw egg and spinach. His feet hit the pavement hard for a full hour every morning. Keeping himself in shape was vital, a strong mind was important in his line of work and wash board abs just got him that one step further.

 

When he got home from his run was usually where things started to go downhill. If his wife was home he would gain an extra hour of good beginnings by taking her to work with him but those days were getting less and less. He liked to pretend it was because she was a busy woman and not because she was trying to avoid making small talk over breakfast with him. He was a resourceful man though and when she wasn’t home to fill his morning he’d fill it himself by sharing his shower with their maid. This morning was not going to present him with this opportunity though. Mrs Thompson was no-where in sight when he stepped through the door but his phone was ringing off the hook. The FBI was coming to see him this morning and his associates were concerned about the reason why. He didn’t know why and frankly he didn’t care. He reassured them he would meet them after work in their ‘conference room’ to tell them all the details and promised he would meet with the lawyer prior to talking to the Agent. Jasmine, their maid was baking something in the kitchen. She stopped momentarily to glance his way, a silent question ‘did he want her this morning?’ He smiled a brief contemplation but turned towards the shower alone and congratulated himself for it. He told himself perhaps today truly was going to be a new beginning. He was a good liar and he told himself the most convincing of lies. Really he knew that by the end of the day the scotch would replace the smoothie. He would treat his mistress as if she was his wife and his wife as if she were a loyal pet and the fresh air he breathed in on his morning run would be polluted by expensive cigars. He’d still have his washboard abs though. Each day his fall from grace was just as far and just as easy to climb back up in the morning and put on those running shoes again. He could spend the next twenty years doing this…. Couldn’t he?

 

 

 

 

 

Mulder sat in a very expensive chair trying to decide whether he was ready for this meeting or whether he should just dismiss his inclination that this could be an X-File and walk out the door. He looked up at the clock. His appointment with Mr Thompson: Mr Plastic Surgeon/business man/entrepreneur was officially running late. He hated important people but most of all he hated hospitals and tried to avoid them both at all costs. After all he spent too much time in hospitals when he was recovering from the latest case he was involved in. Why on earth would he want to be in a hospital when he was well? Besides they always reminded him of her. Six years had passed since the day he had found her apartment empty. The same day his life seemed to empty too. An empty bed when he woke that morning, an empty office, an empty heart. He hadn’t seen or spoken to her in over six years, how positively screwed up is it that of all places a hospital is where he thought of her most. He supposed it was because if he was to ever find her again it would most likely be inside the walls of a hospital.

 

Building private hospitals must make you a very busy man, Mr ‘Hot shot Surgeon’ was now running ten minutes late and the sitting and waiting was making Mulder feel uneasy. He looked up at Mr Thompson’s assistant impatiently, hoping to catch her eye. She was cute, he supposed. Not that he found himself looking at women in that way anymore. In fact he hadn’t looked at a woman in a very long time. He was still searching for her, in every city, in every crowd, in every country he found himself in. He had exhausted using official channels to find her years ago. Whoever hid her did so extremely well. After six years of nothing though, he had developed a nagging little voice on his shoulder. It liked to tell him she didn’t want to be found. Three glasses of scotch, he had discovered was the best way to drown that out and most of the time he could stop at three. Most of the time.

 

The assistant caught his glare. “I’m sorry Agent Mulder. I’m sure he won’t be too much longer. This meeting is with a V.I.P. It often goes longer than expected.”

 

So he wasn’t a V.I.P, what’s new. He was used to being a ‘not V.I.P’ in every aspect of his life. He rubbed his hand down his face and sat back in his chair. The sound of the creaking expensive leather punctuated his nervousness. He hated hospitals. Suddenly the doors to the main office opened and two men exited laughing and shaking hands. Mulder kept his seat and watched the cheerful exchange. He recognised Mr Thompson from his pictures. His expensive suit and sandy hair and beard easily put him in the GQ section of successful business men. The VIP raised his eyebrows as a way of greeting at Mulder as he passed the couch he was sitting on. Mulder scanned his memory for his face but couldn’t find a mug shot that fit. When he looked up Mr Thompson was standing at his knees.

 

“Mr Mulder.” He extended his hand. “I’m Dr Michael Thompson.”

 

Mulder stood before taking his hand in a firm shake “Agent Mulder” he corrected. “Thank you for meeting with me.”

 

He smiled a seemingly genuine smile “Of course. I’m always happy to assist the authorities in their investigations.”

 

He seemed a little too genuine. Mulder didn’t trust genuine people and now he wished he had done a more thorough back ground check on him.

 

“Come through to my office. Can I offer you a drink?” He looked towards his assistant who stood diligently.

 

A drink sounded like a great idea but he didn’t think Dr Michael Thompson meant it to come from the liquor cabinet. “Ah No thank you.”

 

Michael gestured towards his door. “Very well, after you then.”

 

The office was huge. It could be the size of his apartment Mulder contemplated. It had couches, chairs, a large wooden table and then a desk, which is where Michael took a seat. He seemed to enjoy watching Mulder marvel at the room, so he delayed interrupting his envious gaze before speaking. “Please Agent Mulder, take a seat.” He gestured at one of the large ergonomically correct seats that was poised waiting at the opposite side of the desk.

 

Mulder sat and moulded his back to the fine leather of the chair. “Nice office,” he scanned the photos on the desk as he spoke. Michael seemed to be surrounded by art and photography rather than wedding photos and children’s drawings. He was sure he had read that he was married.

 

Michael noticed his line of site and read his expression clearly. “My wife won’t let me put photos of her on my desk.”

 

“Sorry, I don’t mean to pry.” Mulder lied.

 

“She’s a looker too my wife, far too modest but she does work here, for me and doesn’t like the thought of anyone seeing her in anything other than her lab coat.” He laughed. “Anyway we aren’t here to talk about my good fortune are we Agent Mulder?”

 

Wow this guy thinks pretty highly of himself, Mulder thought imagining his wife as a tall blonde with legs up to her armpits in a tidy crisp Dr’s coat. He tempered his judgement. After all he really needed to keep on this guy’s good side. “I wanted to discuss a patient of yours that was admitted to this hospital four nights ago.”

 

“OK” Michael nodded.

 

“The man’s name is Gregory Hosking. Up until his admission to this hospital he had been missing for four months.”

 

Michael was a great actor if he wasn’t interested in this conversation because he seemed to be hanging on every word Mulder was saying.

 

“I have reason to believe the man was abducted.”

 

“By whom?”

 

“By what?” Mulder clarified.

 

“I’m sorry Agent Mulder. I’m not following you.” He sat forward and rested his hands on his desk.

 

“This man was a member of a MUFON group. Mutual UFO network. This wasn’t the first time he has disappeared without a trace and then returned. It was however the longest time he has been gone for and the first time he has come back and required hospital admission.”

 

Michael sat back in his big comfy chair and gave Mulder that look every man gave him at this point in this conversation. “Agent Mulder as I’m sure you can appreciate I own six hospitals, I don’t keep tabs on every single patient that comes through these doors. Why is it that you have come to me and not gone through the usual channels? I have very capable staff.”

 

“Well…”

 

The phone on the desk made a blaring noise interrupting him. “I apologize Agent Mulder.” He stabbed the phone and the assistant he had met at the door spoke eloquently through the small speaker.

 

“Dr Thompson. Mrs. Thompson is here to see you.”

 

He smiled up at Mulder. Clearly his wife was at the door.

 

“Katherine? “

 

Mulder pretended not to listen.

 

“I’m going to have to cancel lunch honey.” He kept a finger down awaiting her response.

 

The voice was a little crackled through the intercom but the sigh was unmistakable. Clearly Mrs Thompson was used to being disappointed. “Fine, whatever.”

 

Mulder straightened a little in his seat. That phrase, those words. Another woman who was used to being disappointed had used them on him before. He looked at the speaker like she might appear. When she didn’t he relaxed back into his seat again. He heard her voice in many female voices through a phone or in a computer over the years. It had led him astray too many times before.

 

Michael removed his finger “You ok Agent Mulder?”

 

“Yeah for a second there I thought.” He met his confused stare. “Never mind.”

 

Michael swung in his chair a little. “Mrs Thompson was once an FBI Agent actually.”

 

That got Mulders pulse jumping a little. “Really?” he pushed.

 

“She doesn’t really talk about it though.” He seemed to dismiss it quickly.

 

“What did she do? If you don’t’ mind me asking?” He tried to seem calm and collected. It was a long shot. He’d seen it before.

 

“I honestly don’t know.” Michael shook his head. “She is the head of our Fertility clinic here, works mostly in a laboratory. I assumed she worked in a lab at the FBI too.” He chuckled a little “She certainly doesn’t look like she would have been a field agent like yourself. So tell me again Agent Mulder, why have you come to me instead of going through my staff to get the information you require?”

 

Mulder briefly forgot his previous line of questioning. “Well it seems your “capable staff” has blocked me from seeing him or any of his medical records.”

 

“Well I do not know why this information has been blocked but I can assure you we are more than happy to work with the authorities when all of the legal paperwork is complete. As you can appreciate Patient confidentiality is of the utmost importance to us. I assume you have all the legal paperwork Agent Mulder?”

 

Mulder didn’t answer he just met his eye and shook his head slightly.

 

“I see.” Michael entwined his fingers together and swung his chair side to side. “You thought my people would happily hand over confidential patient information without the necessary legal documents?”

 

“I thought I would at least get to see him.”

 

Michael’s eyes narrowed at him.

 

“What if I said please? Could I see the file then?” He smirked.

 

Michael matched his smirk. “I’ll tell you what. I’ll look into this patient for you and then we can meet back here tomorrow. Perhaps I can better answer your questions and you’ll make it back home to Washington for dinner tomorrow night. “He stood and held out his hand.

 

Mulder hesitated before he stood and shook it. “Thank you Dr Thompson.” He shook his hand for too long. A question was nagging at him. His curiosity was tugging on his shirt like a persistent child. Michael was starting to look uncomfortable holding his hand for so long. “What did you say your wife’s name was?”

 

He looked a little confused and dropped Mulders hand before he spoke “aah Katherine.”

 

Mulder’s blood ran a little cold. Could she of taken her second name? If she wanted to stay hidden, but just a little, how easy would it be to simply change the order of her name? He was suddenly more interested in this man and this hospital than when this case fell under his door. He needed to find out more about him. He needed to be sure. A long shot was, after all. All he had.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mulder was no stranger to a bar. The one closest to his apartment had been like a second home to him these last few years. Funny who you make friends with at the bottom of a bottle of scotch, funny how you can convince yourself you are ok with that too. But this kind of bar, the kind where woman sat on fat, rich men’s laps while they placed crisp, green notes inside their satin underwear. This kind of bar he hadn’t been to in years. He was no stranger to fabricated lust but not this kind. He never had the stomach for this kind even though he knew how double standard that opinion was. He downed his own shot and hailed the bartender with a finger for another. Through the bar he could see Michael Thompson sitting at a table with three other men. All wore expensive suites and smoked illegal cigars. They reminded Mulder of old kings sitting at a round table feasting on bore and chugging ale. If this guy was married to his Scully, his presence here sickened him even more than it did when he followed him here in his nice convertible car. He had no choice but to follow him. All information on him in the FBI data base had been sealed by someone with a higher clearance than him and any attempt to access it by other means meant contacting the FBI directly. If he did that his annoying, brooding partner would know where he was and jump on the next red eye flight to tell him how insane he is again. At least when Scully did she had the curtesy to back up her claim to his mental instability. All Malcom seemed to do was get in his way and fumble with the evidence. He hoped The Lone Gunmen would have the information for him by morning. He had deliberately omitted the fact he may be married to Scully. He was always careful to lay that claim just in case he was overheard by some government spy, FBI conspirator, dirty cop, anyone that wasn’t him, anyone who had the power to let her slip through his fingers again.

 

He heard Michaels laugh over the noise of the room and he swallowed his new shot in one large gulp. It felt like it drained straight to his already strained bladder. Michael’s glass had just been refilled so he supposed he had enough time to use the ‘mens’ without losing him. Although he started to wish he had thought of how he planned to follow him now that he was burping three times the legal limit and waltzing his way towards the john.

 

“Tell us about your little meeting Thompson.”

 

Michael blew a ring of cigar smoke through the centre of the table and grinned. The ‘conference room’ had long been this disgusting establishment. He hated it here. He may be an adulterous bastard but this kind of fabricated love made him sick to his stomach. He knew how double standard that opinion was but the thing is there were advantages to holding secret meetings in the highest ranking ‘titty bar’ in town. You see it housed the most important patrons and that meant it probably had better security and held more secrets within its walls than the white house and hoover building combined. So this is where they met to talk about his meeting with the FBI man. “You can all relax it was nothing.” He tapped the ash of his cigar in the shared tray and looked upon his friends. “He was asking about a patient is all.”

 

“What patient?”

 

He waved his hand in the air “I dunno some mental health patient who came through ED a few days ago. He’s still in a coma in ICU.”

 

“What does the FBI care about some random looney?”

 

Michael smirked “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

 

“Cut the crap Thompson and just tell us.”

 

He tilted his drink to his mouth and then ordered another with the flick of a finger in the direction of the waitress. “Is your ass bleeding jones? It must be after all those bricks you’ve been shitting today huh?” He laughed at his own joke and realised he had exceeded his limit for the evening. He had crossed the line from functional drunk to ass hole drunk and no one at the table looked amused. “Seriously guys he thinks our patient was abducted by aliens.”

 

“He did not!” one of the men challenged. “Come on Thompson, what did he want?”

 

Michael raised his arms in surrender. “I swear to God. He’s come looking for little green men.” He held his new drink outwards so it hovered over the table and made obnoxious space ship noises.

 

Two of his three associates laughed and patted each other on the back. Crisis averted, no further ass covering required this week. Lucien Jones was the only one still looking concerned. “Why did he think that?”

 

“Seriously Jones you should have seen this guy. He looked like he hadn’t slept in years. I actually felt sorry for him. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was him who just stepped off a space ship. The poor bastard was one lost soul.” He took a drink from his space ship glass. “He was alone too. They never send just one Agent, they always work in pairs. He had no legal paperwork either. I think he was just running his own agenda. I’m telling you this guy was just, well, sad. I’m sure he’ll be out of our hair by this time tomorrow.”

 

“I treated that patient!” Jones was not looking convinced of Michael’s reassurances. His angry outburst drew the attention of everyone at the table. “That guy’s blood work is strange and I see no reason for his coma. I’ve never seen anything like it and I don’t know how to treat him.”

 

Michael was still obnoxiously drunk. Even if his intelligent friend wasn’t “Did you check for anal probing Jones?” He bellowed at his own clever joke again.

 

“I’m serious Michael! Keep him away from that patient, at least give me some time to figure out what’s wrong with him. I’ve had a bad feeling about this guy ever since he showed up in ED. Which, by the way, no-one actually knows how he got there. There is no admission paperwork.”

 

“There must be some explanation Jones. You can’t honestly believe ET dropped him off on his way home to Mars?” His laugh this time was much less cocky.

 

“I’m just saying don’t let the FBI near him.”

 

Michael emptied his new drink and sat back in his chair. “Ok. I’ll keep him close and see if I can find out a little more about him. I told him I’d meet with him in the morning. Have one of our nurses write up an admission slip for this patient at least.” He stood from the table. “I need to take a piss.”

 

 

 

Why does that first pee feel like a gallon when you are in a bar? Mulder was contemplating the capacity of his bladder and calculating volume’s and kidney filtration rate when someone took a spot too close to him at the urinal. He straightened his shoulders and tried to pretend he was at least slightly sober when he looked up to confront the man who didn’t know the one metre personal space rule at the urinal. Shouldn’t it be two metres in a strip club? He didn’t know the rules about these things.

 

“Are you following me?” Michael Thompson swayed as he spoke.

 

Mulder should have been calculating his fluid load and glomerular filtration rate. Then he wouldn’t have to come up with an explanation for why he was drunk at the same nudey bar as him. “Baaaaah” He managed

 

Michael laughed then slipped his fly down to relieve himself. “What the fuck are you really doing here Agent Mulder? Do you really want me to believe you came looking for little green men?”

 

Apparently he lost all his grace when he had a few under the belt. He stank of money, and smoke, booze and cheap perfume. If he really was married to Scully, Mulder now had no qualms about flooring him right here on these urine soaked tiles. He fastened his fly and moved to the basin to wash his hands. Michael followed him with his eyes. Mulder needed to not piss this guy off. After all he was already helping more than was required of him if he was indeed looking into the case as he had promised. He stared at the reflection of him in the mirror and summoned the strength to be as sober and law abiding as possible. He spun and perched against the tall bathroom sink just as Michael zipped his fly and began washing his hands next to him. “I’m not following you.” He drawled. “I just needed a drink.”

 

“There are bars closer to the hospital Agent Mulder?”

 

Mulder gave him his best poker face, scared he wasn’t buying it, he was caught out and that meant his chances of seeing if Scully was here were slowly washing down the drain. The running tap made him more nervous.

 

Michael laughed and smacked a still wet hand on his arm. “I’m just screwing with you.” He laughed again and Mulder gave a nervous smile. “I know what it’s like, busy man like you gotta get a bit of R and R somewhere right?”

 

Mulder put his head down and nodded subtly, if he looked him in the eye he would clearly see he was lying.

 

“No wife, no girlfriend at home?”

 

Mulder shook his head. Find your words Mulder talk to this man for Christ’s sake. Your acting like your mum just found your porn mags under your mattress. “What about you? Didn’t you say you had a wife at home?”

 

Michaels was very drunk, Mulder concluded by how difficult it was for him to steady himself against the wall and the way his eyes rolled back into his head before he spoke. “Yeah.” He slurred. “My Katherine’s a good girl.”

 

Mulder clenched his fists now he prayed that he was not talking about who he thought he was talking about. If he was he was going to do more than deck this guy.

 

“She’s so beautiful.” He said starring through the tiled bathroom wall. “She’s so beautiful and strong and stubborn as hell.” He righted himself and placed a heavy hand on Mulders shoulder to balance himself. “She’s just. So. Good. Girl next door good. You know what I mean Agent Mulder?”

 

He wished he didn’t.

 

Michael let him go and straightened himself. “You got some way of getting home Agent Mulder?”

 

“Ah…”

 

“I can have my man drive you if you want?”

 

“I haven’t booked a hotel.” He lied

 

Michael looked like he had a drunken epiphany. “You could come home with me.” He stumbled a little and headed for the door. “I have a big house, lots of rooms. You can ride in with me tomorrow and we can sort this UFO nonsense out first thing.”

 

Mulder couldn’t believe his luck. Was he insane? Was he really drunk enough that he would take home a complete stranger? He suddenly felt quite sober. Who cares if the man is crazy drunk, he just secured access to his house and hopefully he would find her there. The next step would be to formulate a plan to get her to come home.

 

 

Michael Thompsons’ house was actually a very large downtown apartment. He stumbled to the door and wrestled with the keys in his pocket. He pursed his lips and loudly shushed Mulder as he pushed through the door and gestured for him to follow. He stepped through the threshold and straight into a large wooden table. A small vase clattered over and rolled dangerously close to the edge. Michael put a finger up to his mouth and shushed the vase too and laughed at himself under his breath. A large, glass chandelier offered a low light over a bench in the kitchen. Mulder followed a stumbling Michael through the apartment and to the fridge where he began pulling out food that was obviously someone’s dinner or had been at one point. He took a tentative scan of the room. There was expensive art and sculptures and frames that could have held photos. Unfortunately with the low light he couldn’t see the faces. His eyes fell on a note magnetised to the fridge. ‘Michael. Tania called. AGAIN.’ Mulder studied the scroll closely. You don’t spend years looking for someone and don’t cover the basics like memorising their hand writing. It definitely was not hers. He felt dismayed and a little panicked. He could easily be wrong, it had happened before, more times than he‘d like to admit too in fact. Michael offered him a chicken leg and he shrugged a no and continued to survey the room. Nothing gave him any more clues. In fact the more he looked around the more he convinced himself he had lost her again. He never pictured her like this. Married to a drunken jack ass, living in a pompous apartment where the decor cost more than his entire yearly wage. He pictured her in a neighbourhood. A place that had back yards and swing sets, neighbourhood watch meetings and local markets. Katherine and Michael Thompson’ss apartment made him feel as far from home as he could possibly be and for a man who believed in Aliens that was pretty far. Michael hit him on the back again. Why do drunk men do that?

 

“Spare rooms that way.” He pointed to the opposite side of the kitchen and then belched loudly. “I’ll see you in the morning.” He shut off the light and mapped his memorised route through the lounge. Mulder badly wanted to follow. He desperately needed to see those pictures. If it wasn’t her, if he was wrong then he was going to leave and forget about this case and this place. Forget about Mr Hosking and his close encounter. He wouldn’t even involve Malcom. He’d go home and forget about this whole strange day. But he couldn’t follow him through the house. If he was caught snooping he would lose whatever weird good graces he had gained with this man. So he shuffled into the spare room and softly shut the door behind him. He’d wait a few minutes. Sure it wouldn’t take long for him to fall asleep and then he would go and look at those pictures. Set his mind at ease or set his world on fire.

 

The room was obviously Michaels spare room. It offered no more clues to the identity of his wife. The wardrobe was full of men’s clothes, the bureau littered with men’s aftershave and hair products. Really what man needs that many hair products anyway? No photos in this room either, just books, lots and lots of medical books. He flicked aimlessly through a few of them and sniffed a few of the bottles on the shelf. Hoping enough time had passed for his idiot, drunk new friend to be asleep. Armed with only the light of his phone he slipped through his door and over the kitchen tiles. He crept over the lounge rug and straight towards a small table that held at least ten photo frames. Big ones, small ones, round ones, square ones. All holding smiling faces, some were young and others were old. He shone the pathetic light closer to one of the larger frames and that’s when he saw it. That shade of blue, that tinge of red. They were Scullys. There was Tara and two red headed boys standing with his old mate Bill. The captain and his wife. Melissa, an old picture he remembered from her apartment in Georgetown. He scanned them all frantically he seemed to have found every Scully on the Scully family tree except for the one he needed. He was so distracted he didn’t hear anyone sneak up behind him. If there wasn’t a gun barrel kissing the back of his head the voice he heard would have melted him into a puddle on the floor.

 

“Don’t move or I’ll blow your head off!”

 

He stood and raised his hands but waited to turn and face her. The phone automatically switched off blanketing them in darkness. He pictured this moment over and over in his head. The moment he found her, confronted her, saw her face to face. He had practiced what he would say, what she would say in 100’s of different scenarios in many different places. He thought it was funny that he never pictured it would be quite like this. So she still carried a weapon. You can take the girl out of the X-files but you can’t take the X-files out of the girl. He banked on the fact that she hadn’t had to fight off an experienced assailant this way in a few years and risked spinning with a manoeuvre that had the gun in his hand and her back firmly against his front.

 

Her hair was longer, much longer than the last time he saw her. It still smelled exactly the same though and now lay tangled over his nose and lips. He breathed her in deeply and squeezed her a little tighter. She was scared, her body was tense, her breathing laboured. Her silky robe slipped under his hands in time with her ragged breathes.

 

His lips brushed the soft shell of her ear “Scully” he breathed out and swore he heard her heart stop beating.

 

 

He pushed his hand out in front of her, releasing her slightly and showing her the gun that was now dangling by the trigger on his index finger.   She pushed away abruptly to see her would be attacker and instead faced a long lost friend. “Mulder? What the hell are you doing here?”

 

For a moment he was taken back, this whole scenario was way outside of the many scenarios he had dreamed or rehearsed in his head. There was supposed to be a hug, a tear, some kind of relief that they were together again. She still looked terrified?

 

“You can’t be here. It’s too dangerous for you to be here.” She scanned the room nervously.

 

Before he could speak a door opened making them both jump. Light filled the room allowing him to see her for the first time more clearly. She looked exactly as he remembered. The only thing different was the length of her hair.

 

Michael Thompson stood in his underwear at the open bedroom door. Rubbing his eyes and scratching his sculpted torso, sleepily. “What’s going on?” He looked between the pair and then the gun now dangling in Mulder’s hand at his side. He laughed slightly as he spoke “Katherine darling did you pull that little gun on our guest? He’s F.B.I sweetheart I’m sure he has something bigger than that thing strapped to his ankle.”

 

Scully looked downwards, seemingly embarrassed that she was being spoken to like that in front of Mulder.

 

Michael addressed Mulder directly as he slinked over to Scully’s side “I told her she shouldn’t play with guns.” He was much taller than her already but when he snaked his arm around her shoulders and kissed the top of her head, she seemed to dwarf even more. “Come on darling, come back to bed and I’ll put those busy hands to better use.”

 

Mulder couldn’t watch her being led away, his head was bowed as the door clicked closed and left him alone in the dark again. He found his way back to his room and his bed but sleep wouldn’t come tonight. The alcohol in his system had dulled enough to kill the euphoria but only heightened the paranoia and now he was stuck on her words. ‘It’s too dangerous for you to be here.’ Of all the uncertain things that had happened today that was the one that made the least amount of sense. She looked scared and not because she had just held up an intruder in her home but she was scared to see him. Why? He drew his mind back to the last night he saw her. He often replayed that memory alone in his apartment. That memory was usually the only thing that got him up again in the morning. The only problem was that night had a beginning, middle and an end and the only part he liked to replay was the part where he watched her call his name as she levitated off of his sheets. The first and only time and he could still smell the rain on her hair and taste the sounds rolling off her tongue. He never thought of the argument they had just before or the way she ripped his heart out and pierced it with her six inch stiletto as she walked out of his door and disappeared into thin air. He had the perfect memory so he knew it would come to him if he concentrated hard enough.

 

It was raining. He remembered her shaking the rain off her coat as she came into his apartment. She was tired, she was angry, she was crying. She spoke of things like misguided loyalty, how he didn’t need her anymore and something about how she had lost sight of her life, of herself. It all blurred into one jumbled, mountain of nonsense words to him anyway. The conclusion was the same no matter how many times he repeated her words in his mind. She was leaving. The F.B.I, The X-Files. Him. He was ashamed at how he reacted. He all but got on his knees and pawed at her ankles. He thought he was confused when she said he would never see her again but confused didn’t even begin to cover it when she started kissing him. Like tonight, there were many ways he had imagined their first time together panning out but her telling him she was leaving him for good and then carefully removing his clothes was definitely not one of them.

 

The next morning he caught her trying to leave without saying goodbye and that’s when he got angry. He may have yelled, he wasn’t proud of how he handled it but what she did was unforgiveable. If only anything she could do to him was unforgiveable then maybe he wouldn’t be sitting here in this dark room remembering the worst moment of his life.

 

***

 

“How can you be so selfish Scully?” He screamed at her, not caring that the door was open and his words were probably waking everyone in the apartments that shared this floor.

 

“Selfish?”.

 

“I know you don’t believe any of that crap you said last night! You know what leaving now would do to the work and to the X-Files. We both know no-one gives a damn about what happens to me anymore Scully but what about the work? The lives of the people you swore to protect, you’d give up innocent lives so you can go find prince charming and a white picket fence. If you can’t have a normal family, a husband and a child of your own then no-one can. Is that it?” He’d tried everything else. Begging her, pleasuring her, loving her and that hadn’t worked she was still going to leave him. He was clutching at straws but just maybe if he hurt her, she would feel so guilty she couldn’t leave. He’d make it up to her later. He always did. Didn’t he?

 

She was crying again but at least she had closed the door. She refused to look him in the eye but she was wrapping her arms around his waist and burying her head into his naked chest. It wasn’t enough he realized, she wasn’t going to change her mind. He clutched at her trembling with the knowledge it was going to be the last time. Could he hurt her or love her any harder? “Scully how can you go, after everything we’ve been through, after what we just did?”

 

“I’m sorry” She breathed on his chest.

 

“You can’t tell me it meant nothing to you?”

 

She released him gently leaving her hand on his chest for a while as if increasing the distance between them slowly would lessen the blow. It didn’t work. Her words could have been bullets and they still wouldn’t have wounded him as much. She looked up at him, the tears now dry on her cheeks. “It didn’t mean anything.”

 

He now realised she could have evaporated before him right then and there because he didn’t actually remember her walking out of his door.

 

 

###

 

He must have fallen asleep eventually because he woke up to a soft knocking on his door.

 

“Agent Mulder?”

 

“Yeah.” He sat up a little fast making his head thump.

 

“I’m going for a run.” Michael looked far too crisp. “wanna come?”

 

He rubbed his hand over his aching head “What time is it?”

 

“Ah 4.33. Quick I’m already 3 minutes behind schedule.”

 

4.30! AM! Schedule? This guy was sub human. He realised this could be the perfect opportunity to talk to Scully alone. “Nah man, I ah, prefer to run in the evenings.” That sounded manly in Mulder’s ears.

 

“Ok.” The door closed briefly then re-opened. “Mrs Thompson has gone into work early. Help yourself ‘mi casa es su casa’. The house keeper starts at 5, she’ll make you breakfast and I’ll be back at.” He looked back at his watch “5.34. We’ll leave for the office at 6.30.”

 

His phone was blinking at him from the night stand. He exhaled hoping it was The Gunmen and not his partner. There were five missed calls and only one of them was from Malcolm. The rest was a hidden number. He hit play on the message icon and Frohike’s voice filled the room. “Why is your phone off? Ring us back.” He hit send and the phone automatically redialled the number.

 

“Why was your phone off?”

 

“Good morning Byers.” Mulder sounded far more chipper than he looked.

 

“Where are you?”

 

He sighed heavily “Just tell me what you found.”

 

“Nothing.”

 

“You called me four times and answer the phone at 5am to tell me you found nothing?” He was far too hung over to decipher their cryptic nonsense.

 

“Michael Thompson is clean. He is a plastic surgeon who inherited his father’s fortune and decided to build hospitals with it. He seems to have some dodgy medical insurance scam going on but as far as conspiring with the government goes we came up blank.”

 

“So why are you ringing me?”

 

“You’re abductee seems to be an unlikely avenue too?”

 

“Huh!” Now there was suspicion prickling at the back of his neck.

 

“It seems Gregory Hosking may actually be delusional. His medical file shows no evidence of experimentation like we have seen on previous abductees and in two of the previous times he claimed to be abducted; he was caught on CCTV pulling an all-nighter at one of the local casinos.”

 

“AH Huh. Tell me Byers did you happen to find anything interesting on Michael Thompson’s personal file?”

 

“Like what? You said to look into his business, you didn’t ask us to look up his personal file?”

 

“Since when does Frohike do exactly what I ask him to do?”

 

“Was there anything specific you needed?”

 

Of all the people he had left in his life he thought he trusted these three idiots the most. So why did this exchange make him so uncomfortable. He suddenly didn’t want to delve any further into this conversation. “Never mind. Why did you send me here if you thought this was a bogus abduction case?”

 

“How do you know it was us?” Langley called through the phone.

 

“You left hot sauce on one of the pages Langley. I’ve dined with you three enough times to know your favourite brand.”

 

Silence filled the other end. Then Frohike piped in finally “Just come home Mulder. You shouldn’t be there.”

 

This was strange. “Ok. I’ll take that under advisement.” He heard the house keeper come through the front door. “I have to go get breakfast. When Malcom calls looking for me tell him I’m visiting my sick Aunt in Idaho.”

 

“Last time you told us to tell him you were going to your Aunts funeral in Idaho.” Byers sounded frustrated as usual.

 

“Oh well. You’ll think of something.”

 

 

 

 

 

Mulder found himself dressed, fed and sitting back in the chair outside Michael Thompson’s office. Just as he did a little over 24 hours ago and yet it felt like a year. He hated hospitals a little less today. He didn’t mind the leather chair or the fact that he had been waiting for Michael for over 30 minutes. Not even listening to his PA tap away on her keyboard irritated him today. He was now just anxious to get to her as soon as he possibly could.

 

Michael came out and apologized again, shook hands with a different VIP and invited him back into his office. He seemed more busy this morning, like he was anxious to get this meeting over with. He sat in his chair and rolled it until it sat firmly beneath his desk. He ushered Mulder into the chair opposite him and began opening one of two files sitting on his desk. “I’m sorry Agent Mulder I don’t have a lot of time this morning. I need to board a plane in less than 45 minutes there is a problem in one of my other hospitals.”

 

“Greg Hosking” He read from the top of the thickest file. “Orphaned at 12 years old, petty theft charge at 14 resulting in a broken collar bone and 2 years at juvenile detention. At 16 admitted after an overdose. Yadda yadda yadda.” He flicked through a few of the pages. “Paranoid schizophrenia diagnosed aged 25 years in and out of our neighbouring psychiatric hospital.” He shut the large file and opened a much smaller one. “Admitted five nights ago, at 0345 hrs into our emergency department. Injuries are consistent with an automobile accident. Current status is critical.” He closed the folder and handed it to Mulder.

 

Mulder took it hesitating only momentarily “What happened to Patient confidentiality and official legal permission?”

 

Michael swung slightly on his seat. “You said please.” He mocked.

 

Mulder sensed there was more coming.

 

“Look Agent Mulder I’m going to cut to the chase.” He clutched his hands together on the desk. “I’m a busy man. There is nothing here in this hospital or in those files. Read them, visit your patient and then go home. I believe I have been more than co-operative.”

 

Mulder felt like one of Michaels one night stands but he had the file and he couldn’t risk him taking it back now. “Thank you Dr Thompson. For the file and the hospitality, you certainly have gone above and beyond.”

 

He smiled and stood with an outstretched hand.

 

Mulder shook his hand and left. Oh he intended on reading the file and he most definitely would be visiting the patient but that could wait until the morning. Right now he was going to find the genetics laboratory.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mulder stood amongst some chemicals and equipment inside a tidy but tight store cupboard. He couldn’t see her from the small window in the door but he had seen her just one room over, inside her lab working like she hadn’t just seen him mere hours ago. It seemed everyone wanted him gone. It certainly was a common theme this morning.in every conversation he had. Scully told him he couldn’t be here. The Gunmen certainly seemed keen for him to board a plane and Michael had all but bought him the ticket. Even the house keeper who over cooked his eggs asked him if he would be here in the morning, looking like she was pleading he would say no. The Gunmen were up to something. He felt it in his bones and if it wasn’t him he was protecting. If it wasn’t him they were working for, there was only one other person on this planet they would help. One other person they would lay it all on the line for and she was walking around a genetics lab through the wall of this small equipment cupboard. He sure hoped she would join him soon and shed some light on what the hell was going on.

 

He didn’t have to wait long. She wandered in a few short minutes later. As soon as she stepped far enough inside he closed the door and flicked the lock bar across the frame. Positioning himself between her and the only available exit. She startled at the sudden movement turning to face him and then paled instantly.

 

“We have to stop meeting this way Scully. Or should I call you Katherine?”

 

“No one has called me Scully in a very long time.”

 

“What should I call you? Dr Thompson? Mrs Michael Thompson?”

 

She seemed to suddenly relax or perhaps deflate. Her shoulders slumped forward and her straight loose hair fell forward to cover her face slightly, she smiled a tired smile “Just go home Mulder.”

 

“Why does everyone keep saying that?”

 

“Because it’s what you need to do. You shouldn’t be here.”

 

She went to push passed him but he grabbed her firmly by the arm and pulled her ear to his mouth. “Scully”

 

“My name is Katherine.” Her stubbornness appeared with a flick of her chin. “It’s been six and a half years Mulder, remember? I left. I changed my life. I’ve changed, I’m not the person you knew or the person you think I am now.”

 

He stood stunned, eyes locked on her lips unable to believe the words passing over them.

 

“Go home Mulder! I don’t want you here!”

 

He released her arm slowly, putting a little distance between them. “I don’t believe you. Last night you looked afraid of me. I’ve never seen you look that afraid of me. You said it was dangerous for me to be here. Why?” He whispered loudly

 

“You were snooping in my house in the middle of the night. What did you expect?”

 

“I expect you to pull a gun on me, which you did. Poorly I might add.”

 

She smiled reluctantly

 

“But when you saw it was me you looked more terrified than if I was a common thief.” He paused briefly to look over her suspiciously. “Do the gunmen know you are here?” A look of uncertainty and fear fell on her features then. It was brief but he caught it and without saying a thing she confirmed his worst suspicions.

 

“Why would they? You know they would tell you if they did?”

 

“Maybe”

 

He stepped into her personal space again and she had to tilt her head right back to keep eye contact with him. “I missed you.”

 

She sighed heavily. “Go home Mulder. Please.”

 

He took a step back, clearing her path to the door. “I’m sorry Katherine but I am here in an official capacity conducting an investigation on a patient in your ICU. A patient whom you have something in common with” She looked up and a little puff of fear blew through her features. Now he could see her up this close she did look a little different. There were a few more lines etched into her skin, a few more freckles she was still trying to cover under her make-up and her eyes seemed to shine a little less. “I could really use your help on this but if it’s what you really want then I’ll leave when I have concluded my investigation.”

 

She unbolted the door and walked straight passed him, not stopping to look at him when she spoke. “It’s what I want.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

The office of The Lone Gunman was lit by its many computers that never seemed to be shut down. The smell of insomnia and Mexican food was permanently imbedded in the feng shui of the room. The red light of the printer blinked with an unattended paper jam. Nobody in the room interested in fixing it all had more important problems on their mind. The three occupants sat at each corner of the room, arms folded, starring at the telephone as if they could rewind their recording devices and the conversation they had just had along with it.

 

“You’re an idiot.” Langley smacked his small balding friend on the back of the head.

 

“Ow. Don’t blame me.” Frohike said straightening his glasses.

 

“I think it’s safe to assume he found her.” Byers said sitting in front of his blinking computer screen.

 

“We don’t know that for sure. He would have said if he had? Wouldn’t he?” Frohike replied.

 

Byers scratched his beard “Mulder is more paranoid then us and he trusts us less than we deserve after what we have put him through the last six years.”

 

“Six and a half.” Langley corrected from his corner of the room.

 

Byers and Frohike looked in his direction. A collective sigh fell over the trio. Byers got up to turn off the printer. He wrenched open the tray and ripped the paper into pieces. “Convenient that just six months out from our dead line he finds her.” He said picking at broken bits of paper stuck inside the rollers.

 

“Too convenient, who sent you the tip on the abductee Frohike?” Langley stepped back out of the shadow in the room.

 

“It was ‘Old Dog’, he’s never given us bad information before. Besides it’s still a genuine abduction. You just made up that CCTV crap to get Mulder to come home.”

 

“You think Mulder’s going to give up that easy? You don’t think he’s going to at least check it out.” Langley argued.

 

“Well what if he does Langley? It’s not like Mr ‘hot shot’ plastic surgeon; Michael Thompson is going to let the F.B.I sniff around his patients without a warrant is he? Besides he hasn’t found her! He would of said!” yelled Frohike.

 

Byers was watching his colleagues argue back and forth while simultaneously trying to think of something more productive to do about their little situation. He calmed his voice, “Even if he found her, she’s married, she still knows it’s too dangerous for him to be there. She’ll deal with it. We have to trust her, she’s come this far. I’m sure she won’t blow it with just six months to go.”

 

“I still can’t believe she’s married.” Frohike said whimsically.

 

“Oh give it up lover boy. Her kind isn’t even in your stratosphere.”

 

“Shut up Garth!” Hissed Frohike

 

“Arguing isn’t going to help us gentleman. We need a plan.”

 

Frohike and Langley joined Byers in a seat. Hoping he had a good one. “We are going to have to tell him where Mulder is.”

 

Langley and Frohike shared a nervous look. “Mulder will kill us.” Langley said.

 

“He’s going to kill us anyway if he finds out we’re responsible for Scully leaving. At least this way we have a small chance he hasn’t found her and we can bring him back and still avoid intergalactic warfare.” Byers explained.

 

“But he hates us.” Frohike pointed out.

 

“We can’t go to him, he doesn’t trust us. He’ll know straight away something is up.” Argued Langley.

 

“Yeah and I still don’t know whether we can really trust him” Frohike added.

 

“I don’t think we have any other choice. We are going to have to get him to come to us.” Said Byers “Langley do you think you could send an email from the office of Walter Skinner?”

 

“Does a one legged duck swim in circles?”

 

“Cut the crap Langley and send the email.”

 

 

 

 

Mulder was back to hating hospitals again. Michael’s staff were being more than helpful but in Mulder’s experience those who were enthusiastic about helping him were often the ones trying to feed him the foulest smelling bull shit. The chirpy nurse was happy for him to see Mr Hosking, just as long as he didn’t stay any longer than absolutely necessary. She provided enough cleavage to make him feel obligated to do what she said. Mr Hosking was in an induced coma. There was a long intubation tube protruding uncomfortably from the right side of his mouth. He had a tube for every orifice and a rainbow of colourful liquids being pumped into him by machines that jingled on the hour. It never felt like much time had passed since Scully’s abduction but now that he looked upon the advances in medical technology he wondered how on earth she ever survived. His hands shook for a moment so he took a deep breath and then reached for his vital signs board hooked on the end of his bed. He didn’t really know what he was looking at. Everything seemed to be within the range of normal outlined on the chart, beyond that he really wondered what he was doing hanging around. The information he needed was really in the charts. He thanked the nurse, who had hovered suspiciously around him the entire time he was there and made his way out of the ICU.

 

He made his way back to the genetics lab. He hadn’t come this far to give up now. A pimple faced technician was the only one there this time and reluctantly told him Dr Thompson was taking her break on the roof. As odd as that sounded, he needed to see her again, if only to see her again. It was hot in the stair well as he climbed and climbed what seemed to be a never ending mountain of stairs. When he reached the door he hesitated hoping to not startle her again when he pushed it open. Luckily it slipped open easily and when he stepped out she was no-where close by. Why on earth was she up here? He spent a few moments wandering behind chimneys and vents, stopping to peak around each corner until finally he spotted her. She was standing very close to the edge. Her chin was raised, her eyes closed allowing the sun to fall directly on her face and a small breeze to blow through her hair. There was a pair of six inch pumps discarded half-hazard next to her. A frightful thought crossed his mind. Did she intend to jump!? He was about to start running towards her when her left hand came up from her side. A cigarette sat comfortably between two fingers. She placed it to her beautiful lips and drew the poison deep into her lungs. He paused in his pursuit as she blew the smoke off the edge of the building. He couldn’t believe she was smoking. He began to retreat back to the door, afraid that the closer he seemed to get the less familiar to him she became and it was starting to scare him.

 

Safely back in his hotel room he surrounded himself in Mr Hosking’s file and it didn’t take long for him to realize that The Gunmen had lied to him about everything. The Gunmen had lied, Michael Thompson had lied, the nurse with the breast augmentation lied and above all Scully was most definitely lying to him. Who else was there left to trust? His next step was a difficult one amplified when his phone rang and without checking the caller i.d he answered it.

 

“Skinner has personally booked you on the 2315 to Washington Mulder. He said be on that flight or start searching the classifieds.”

 

“Hello Malcom.” He replied cracking the lid on his bottle of whisky.

 

“I’m serious Mulder. Be on that plane.”

 

“Tell me, if The AD himself was so eager to see me why didn’t he call me instead?”

 

“Because Fox.”

 

He must be mad at him. He only spouted his first name like that when he was really angry. Like a mother scolding her naughty child.

 

“Today we use this wonderful new invention called the internet. The AD sent you three emails that you obviously haven’t checked in days. He booked the flight himself, also on the internet.”

 

Mulder rolled his eyes and took a deep swig of the burning liquid. “I’ll see you in the morning Malcom.” Mulder didn’t specify which state he would see him in knowing that when he wasn’t on that fight, Malcom would be on the next one that led to him. There was so much he needed to find out first and he intended on doing that, after a drink. Or two. Three was his limited.

 

When the bottle was empty he found himself on the door step of Mr and Mrs Thompson and only vaguely remembering the taxi ride over. When she pulled the door open he seemed to sober instantly. “Katherine.”

 

“Jesus Mulder.”

 

“I’m sorry Scully.”

 

“You can’t call me that!” She spoke firmly under her breath as she dragged him over the threshold by his shirt sleeve and into the large kitchen. He noticed she checked the hall for anyone lurking before she pushed him onto a tall stool sitting under a breakfast bar and turned on the coffee machine

 

“Katherine, your husband?”

 

“Isn’t home. What are you doing here Mulder? I told you to leave!”

 

“I wanted to but I was having so much fun.” He was still very drunk and she had very little remaining tolerance. “Plus I discovered your husband runs a shitty hospital.”

 

“Shhhhh” She cautioned

 

He placed a crocked finger as close to the centre of his mouth as he could manage. “I thought you said we were alone.” He whispered terribly loudly.

 

“We are never alone, you and I.”

 

He got her meaning instantly there were always those unseen watching and listening. He nodded and sobered a little more. “So Kath-er-ine.” He exaggerated her name purposely. She rolled her eyes and then poured two mugs of coffee. He noted she didn’t even hesitate at adding the three sugars he takes at this time of day. She always used to lecture him about tooth decay and diabetes whenever she made his coffee late at night. He never thought he would miss those lectures until they were gone. No-one looked after him like her. He doesn’t even think Malcolm made him coffee. Ever. He took the steaming cup into his hands and watched her take a high seat next to him. She was so close their arms touched when he raised the mug to his mouth and took a cautious sip. “you are married.”

 

“Yes I am.” She carefully placed hers on the bench and glanced sideways at him, looking as though she was preparing herself for one of his interrogations.

 

“And you live in a big apartment with staff.” Now he just sounded sarcastic.

 

“I also drive a brand new BMW, own a race horse, two beach houses and a boat named ‘Busting at the seams.’”

 

“You’re kidding.”

 

“I married a plastic surgeon with a bizarre sense of humour.” She casually sipped on her hot coffee.

 

“Hmm and abs to boot.”

 

She smiled and he finally felt like his Scully was sitting with him. “Tell me about him, about how you met.”

 

She took a deep breath as if her story was only going to last the length of time it would take her to exhale. “It’s complicated.” She avoided the question.

 

“I bet!”

 

That got him a cautioning glare. She blew out that breath again “we met at the hospital back when it was owned by his father. I was working there to get close to the laboratory I needed to work in and when Michael’s father died he gave me the opportunity to run it. He wanted to build a medical empire and I was excited by his ideas and wanted to help him.

 

“It seems you have both been very successful” He knew she was holding something back but he was willing to let her off the hook for the moment.

 

She shrugged.

 

“He must do a lot of boob jobs.” He joked to break the awkwardness in the moment and dared a peak at her chest.

 

She straightened and closed her robe instantly. “Not on me!”

 

He laughed along with her and it started to feel like he was home.

 

“So you drink now?” She sounded very judgemental.

 

He hung his head in shame. “Well apparently you smoke now. Doctor.”

 

“You followed me!”

 

“You didn’t leave me any choice.”

 

She tightened her lips, embarrassed slightly. “Only on my lunch break.”

 

“Yeah well I only drink on days ending in the letter ‘y’”

 

 

 

 

#######

 

“Tell me why I had to fly all the way out here Jones, especially with the FBI sniffing around one of my ICU’s.” Michael didn’t skip a beat when he rushed through the office door of one of his partners and closest friends.

 

“That’s why you flew out here Mikey!”

 

He called him Mikey; no one called him Mikey, not even his own wife. Mikey was what his father called him and only his friends who knew him well enough to know that used it. Lucien Jones was only one of two left. He sat cautiously in one of the chairs and that’s when he noticed an ash tray sitting on the desk and realised he could also smell cigarettes. “Since when do you smoke Jones?”

 

“I don’t.” Lucien Jones unbuttoned his jacket so he could sit more comfortably in his chair behind the desk.

 

“Since when do you let people smoke in your office then? Jesus Christ Lucien this is a hospital.”

 

“Since I’ve got some government big shot in her drawing on those Morleys like they are going out of stock and telling me he’d make our insurance problems go away if we were to entertain a certain FBI agent’s requests at a certain hospital.”

 

“What!?”

 

“You heard me!”

 

“How does he know about the insurance thing?”

 

“I don’t know but you better fucken hope that FBI agent is still hanging around when you get home. Put him in your spare room. Feed him fucken caviar; let him screw your wife if that’s what he wants.”

 

“Hey! We might be friends but don’t ever talk like that about Katherine.”

 

They both knew his comradery was as fake as his tan but Lucien was prepared to humour him. “I’m sorry Mikey but if this guy is serious. If we don’t do what he wants than we are finished.” He wiped the beads of sweat from his brow. “Did you give Agent Mulder the false admission paperwork?”

 

“Yeah and I had Amanda specifically take him to the patient.”

 

“Good. Good.” He nodded.

 

A heavy silence filled the room. “Something big is going on Mikey.”

 

“You’re paranoid” Michael brushed it off.

 

“You know why I was called in to work that night in ED. The Doctor who was supposed to be on crashed his car.”

 

“So”

 

“So I don’t think it was a coincidence. He also happened to be the same height, build, colour and blood type as Greg Hosking, the man your FBI agent thinks was abducted.”

 

“Coincidence?”

 

“Maybe but that’s how his admission got over looked. Not only that but….” Lucien was sweating profusely now and he leaned over his desk so he could lower his voice as if someone maybe listening to their conversation. “The patient, ‘Hosking’ is gone.”

 

“Gone, what do you mean gone?”

 

“I mean he fucking disappeared into thin air, the same way he appeared that morning.”

 

“What!?” Michael started to sweat himself.

 

Lucien nodded glad Michael was starting to take him seriously. “We switched his chart with the Dr’s to clean it all up for your FBI agent.”

 

Michael rubbed a shaky hand over his rough beard “What the hell is going on?”

 

“I don’t know but you better keep him there. Keep him right where you can keep a close eye on him. Whatever you do, don’t let him get too close to the guy in ICU and don’t let him go back to Washington.”

 

 

 

#####

 

Mulder twirled the last of his coffee in the bottom of his mug. He studied the tiny un-dissolved sugar crystals swirling around the bottom of the cup and realised he was now quite sober. Dammit, now he would never fall asleep. Scully took the cup from him and moved to put it along with hers in the sink. He smiled up at her and noticed the time on her oven clock. “Skinner booked me a flight to DC. It leaves in 30 minutes.”

 

She leant her back against the sink. “You should go. You should get on that plane.” It sounded like a warning, not a command.

 

“I can’t. You still haven’t told me why you left.” He left off the “me”

 

She hung her head frustrated “I told you back then.” She simply stated lifting her chin and facing him confidently. “I wanted a new life.”

 

He looked around the glamorous kitchen and up at the crystal chandelier above him “and this is it?”

 

“I thought you’d do the same Mulder. You never really needed me out there. I was just a pawn in some sick government game, a play thing for the highest bidder. Jesus Christ I still am. You could ride your knight without me, try and take the queen but it’s a fight you can’t win and I didn’t join the FBI to play games. I thought you’d find someone and move on. I thought you’d forget about me.”

 

“Like you did?”

 

She pushed away from the bench and folded her arms in front of her “That’s not fair.”

 

“Fair!” He hesitated. “Forget it. I don’t want to fight with you. Just tell me this, do The Gunmen know you are here? Did they have anything to do with you leaving?”

 

She bit her lip nervously “Why can’t you just accept what I said?”

 

“Because they lied to me!” He cut her off before she could lie to him again too.

 

She was breathing hard now and yet she couldn’t answer him. Instead she broke his glacial stare and looked to the floor for strength.

 

“That’s what I thought.” He suddenly thought he might be sick. The seat he sat on felt like it was starting to go up in flames. He was sweating, his vision blurred, it was like he was watching his allies drop one after the other in the space of one small conversation. Maybe he should leave, this world was unrecognisable.

 

She found the courage to look up at him again. “They don’t know that I am here. I can tell you that. They would never do anything to deceive you Mulder. You can trust them. You need to trust them!”

 

“Like I can trust you right?”

 

Neither of them dared to blink neither wanted to be the last to speak. Russian roulette of words and neither knew which one had the live round.

 

“I don’t want to fight with you either.” Scully whispered, defusing the conversation instantly.

 

Mulder still looked angry. “I need to look into this thing at the hospital. I hoped I could at least get you to look at it with me but…..”

 

“I will.”

 

He relaxed a little.

 

“Come and see me tomorrow at the hospital and show me your case file. I’ll help you solve it, we can seal it together and then.” She faltered. “And then Mulder you need to leave me.” She didn’t leave off the ‘me’ deliberately and he knew it.

 

He coughed and then adjusted himself in his seat. “Ok.”

 

“Ok”

 

“Now I’ll call you a cab.”

 

“Ok”

 

When Scully put down the phone an awkward vale fell over them. What could they possibly discuss now? Not the case, he didn’t have the file. They had covered deception, betrayal and abandonment, small talk just seemed inappropriate. “Are you hungry?” Scully suddenly spoke.

 

“Yes.” It seemed he had been reduced to single word responses.

 

She opened a large silver fridge and sitting in the very centre was a giant chocolate cake. It had three layers all held together with red jelly and topped with giant ripe strawberries. Mulder gapped at it as Scully carefully removed it from the fridge and placed it right down in front of him. He couldn’t take his eyes off of it as she hunted through a few draws in search of something to cut it with, plates and cake forks to eat it from. He was practically drawling as she slid a generous slice onto a saucer and handed it to him. “You made this?” He questioned his tone laced with utter disbelief.

 

“No Mulder. I have a house keeper who also cooks and bakes.”

 

“Oh yes I met her this morning.” He carefully sliced the tip of the cake with his small silver fork.

 

“I pretend I don’t know she’s screwing my husband and she bakes me chocolate cake.” She spoke casually whilst filling her mouth with red jelly and cake. “It seems like a fair trade.”

 

Mulders fork stopped abruptly between his plate and his mouth and the carefully sliced piece of cake rolled off it. His appetite suddenly left him. He watched her place a few more spoonfuls into her mouth, mesmerised by the way her lips and tongue manoeuvred around the fork. How could she be happy like this? With him?

 

She noticed his discomfort “I’m sorry I shouldn’t have said that. Forget I said anything.” She dismissed it and rounded the bench to sit at his side again. “Try some cake. Please.”

 

Chocolate, jelly and strawberries, he could taste it already but when it hit his taste buds all he got was something that tasted more like bread, bad bread. “Urgh” He fought the urge to spit it out. “What is this?”

 

“It’s gluten, dairy, sugar free chocolate cake with homemade sugar free jam.” She happily continued to eat her piece and secretly smirk at the look on Mulders face.

 

“Argh well it’s nice to know some things haven’t changed about you Sc… Katherine.”

 

She smiled sweetly and blushed. There was a dollop of jam sitting on the corner of his mouth. He looked dishevelled and helpless and it was crushing her slowly that she couldn’t be the one to put him back together. His stare sat heavily upon her with unspoken questions whizzing around her ears. She had to mentally prepare herself to look up. Time stood still for a few moments and that charge, that magnetism between them seemed to kick up a notch. She leaned closer to him slowly and gently wiped the jam from his lip. Her hand lingering just a little longer than it should of. “you have a little.”

 

He didn’t drop her eyes from his as he swiped his own lip catching her hand in his as he did pulling her closer to him.

 

Her breath quickened, her heart was fluttering wildly.

 

“It feels like you have forgotten.” His whispering lips were dangerously close to hers.

 

She knew exactly what he was talking about. Of course she hadn’t forgotten.

 

“Do you even remember the last night we spent together? The last thing you said to me?” He whispered still. “I don’t care about all the other lies you told me that night but tell me. Did you mean what you said before you walked out of my door for good?”

 

She thought her heart might burst out of her chest. She wasn’t prepared for this.

 

Suddenly the front door flew open and Michael stepped in shaking the rain off his shoulders “Katherine.” He called. When he rounded the corner he was simultaneously confused, relieved and probably most of all nervous. “Agent Mulder, is everything alright?” He slowly lowered his briefcase to the kitchen floor. His eyes volleyed between the pair who were standing next to the breakfast bar looking like they had just been caught sneaking in after curfew “Katherine?”

 

She recovered first “Everything’s fine Michael. Agent Mulder here is just waiting for a cab.” She walked up to him and kissed him dutifully on the lips. She curled his tie in her hand and smiled up at him “Did you sort your problem with Lucien.” She was now acting as if Mulder was no-longer in the room.

 

He looked over at him briefly then back to Katherine “ah yeah. You know Lucien he was just being paranoid over nothing.” He looked back and forward between the pair. Agent Mulder was looking decidedly uncomfortable. “Ah am I interrupting something here? Do you two know each other?”

 

“No” Scully answered.

 

“Yes” Mulder also answered simultaneously.

 

“Ok?” Michael now just looked a little pissed off.

 

Scully flapped her hand loosely in Mulder’s direction, “well not really.”

 

“We used to work together.” Mulder interrupted “At the FBI.”

 

Michael looked down at his wife expecting an acceptable answer. “I didn’t recognise him at first last night but yes we did. Kind of, I did some of the ground work for Agent Mulder.” She looked over at him nervously. He didn’t realise how dangerous this situation was and she hoped the coffee had sobered him enough to keep his mouth shut.

 

“Yeah.” He went back to single word responses. “Well maybe I’ll go wait for my cab downstairs.”

 

He went to move to the front door but was shocked to be stopped by Michael himself. He reached out and took his arm almost desperately. “You know you can always stay in our spare room?”

 

“I think he’s happy in his hotel.” Scully offered quickly.

 

“Come now Katherine, he’s an old friend. He can stay, what’s the point in getting a cab back to some shammy hotel only to get a cab into work tomorrow when he can stay here and ride with us.”

 

“Michael..”

 

“Katherine!” They starred each other down.

 

Mulder didn’t know where to look until the front gate bell buzzed on the wall next to him. The cabby downstairs was announcing his arrival. He watched it unsure of what the safest move was. Michael didn’t give him a chance he pushed the receiver for him. “Sorry mate. Services no-longer required.”

 

Michael and Mulder both turned to Scully to see what she would do. The air around her whizzed and popped. She tightened her robe that wasn’t loose to begin with and marched across the living room to slam her bedroom door.

 

Michael was completely un-phased. “Can I get you a drink Agent Mulder?”

 

He was busy starring at the bedroom door. “Nah thanks Dr Thompson.”

 

“Please call me Michael.”

 

“Ah Michael. I think I might just hit the sack.” He turned and started to make his way to his temporary bedroom.

 

“Agent Mulder.”

 

“Just Mulder is fine.”

 

“Mulder, did you finish up with our patient because if you have some time tomorrow I have some concerns I would like to share with you.”

 

Michael seemed to have jumped personalities again. He was jumping back and forth from friend to fo and Mulder was struggling to keep up. “Yeah ok. I have some questions for you too and Katherine as a matter of fact. She said she would look over the case file for me tomorrow too.”

 

“Katherine? I don’t see how she can help. She’s a geneticist. She helps rich infertile woman get their designer test tube baby. What would she know about supposed alien abduction?”

 

Mulder grinned, biting back the response he really wanted to give. “Actually she may have some personal insight into the case.” He dared Michael to ask her, with the tone of his voice.

 

“Well anything that will help. You know we are having a party the day after tomorrow. We like to host the business associates once a month .Actually, more accurately, our wives like to get together and natter about how we spend too much time at work. Well except for Katherine of course. She’s just as busy as we are.”

 

Mulder was now beyond confused. “You want me to stay now?”

 

“Well seeing as you are here and you and Katherine seem to be friends of some kind, why not?”

 

“I’ll think about it.” Mulder felt like he had gained some upper hand and had no idea how he had done it.

 

“Good night Michael.”

 

He nodded “Mulder.”

 

 

 

Mulder lay still in his comfortable and now familiar bed. He had spent hours starring at that roof and seemed to have fallen into that purgatory space between asleep and awake when he heard someone slip through his bedroom door. At first he thought he had imagined it but now he could practically feel the waves of nerves pulsing off them with their body heat. He was no-longer alone in the room and he couldn’t remember where he put his gun. He played possum. Keeping his eyes closed and his breathing even while trying to listen and gauge movement and size of predator stalking him. It was small. He could take her, he had taken her before. “I know you’re there.” He whispered into the darkness but was met with only silence. “Katherine” he breathed out her name. Then without warning she was there, straddling him. Her knees locked into his hips and a gun pointed firmly into his forehead. He opened his eyes as slowly as he raised his arms and lay them on the pillow either side of his head.

 

“I need your sperm.”

 

There was just enough light shining from the full moon behind the curtains that he could make her out. She was wearing the same navy silk pyjamas only minus the robe this time. “Kinky. Keep wriggling around like that and you’ll get it. Katherine.” He spat her name out at the end.

 

“Shut up! If this room is being monitored I need it to look like I’m threatening you.” She whispered in case they could hear her too.

 

His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed a mouthful of nervous air. “I’m listening.”

 

She pressed the barrel of the gun a little deeper into his flesh. “Six and a half years ago The Lone Gunmen called me into their lair to tell me a story. A secret.” She was shaking and took a necessary deep breath to steady her words again. “Your truth, that which you sold your soul and your family for is an invasion Mulder. That’s what those who sit in the powerful seats are working so hard to cover up. Well some are covering it up, some are fighting it, others maybe assisting it. The point is the date is set and this invasion Mulder. It isn’t flying saucers and little grey men falling from the sky and incinerating us in some Spielberg block buster look alike. It’s an army, a silent army made of men. Half man half alien. A super soldier created by a virus and some carefully altered human genes.”

 

Mulder hadn’t blinked since she started speaking “and you believed them?”

 

She sat back slightly, frustrated and he felt his body start to wake up to the fact that she was sitting astride him.

 

“Of course not! But then they told me I was fertile again, that the chip they put in my neck was not only some kind of homing device, tracker, cancer fighter, whatever. It could alter my biology. It’s like a computer chip only my central nervous system is the computer and it created its own reproductive system. I had all the necessary body parts it just needed to send the right signals to the right glands. In turn they would send the right hormones to the right organs generating new ova and I began ovulating again. The strange thing is no human sperm can fertilise these ovum.”

 

He was started to gain a pretty grim picture.

 

“Mulder when you were exposed to the black oil and this supposedly alien virus within it. That virus altered your biology too just as the chip altered mine.”

 

She was looking at him like he was expected to respond. He couldn’t. He didn’t know what to say.

 

“Don’t you get it? I can conceive but only by you or one of those inmates you met in Russia and I don’t think the aliens expected me to take a Russian holiday anytime soon. But our child Mulder” her eyes became wet, “With their genetic modifications and our history. Your sister, your father. Our child would…. “ She choked back a sob and almost dropped the gun completely. Anger dissolved her tears and she pressed the barrel back into his skull. “The child would not be human but some half human half alien super soldier designed to lead a super race and recolonize the planet.”

 

“Scully”

 

For the first time her finger squeezed the trigger of the gun ever so slightly, she spoke through gritted teeth. “My name is Katherine! Dana Scully is dead!”

 

“Katherine.” His eyes darted to the trigger on the gun, she wouldn’t really squeeze it would she. “I still don’t believe you trusted them. You would’ve needed proof.”

 

“I ran the tests myself. LSH, FSH and Progesterone levels were all consistent with an ovulating cycle. I went to a fertility clinic posing as someone wanting to have IVF and then once the eggs were harvested I pretended to change towns so I could have them transferred to another lab where I could examine them myself. At first they seemed completely normal until I cut into the intricate details of a few of the genes and there were minor but very important variations, especially amongst the skeletal and muscular framework. Gene codes I’ve never seen before.

 

“I don’t really understand.”

 

“Since Michael and I have been married I have had two miscarriages.”

 

He hated when she looked so sad. His hand twitched above his head eager to take hers and comfort her but the gun barrel was still resting between his eyes and her finger was still on the trigger.

 

“For the same reason a cat can’t procreate with a dog, genes are species specific and my ovum is incompatible with most human sperm.”

 

“But Katherine..”

 

“It’s true! Why do you think I’ve been hiding in a genetics lab? I’ve been helping infertile couples conceive while secretly trying to figure out how and why this happened and what if anything I can do about it. Perhaps having your DNA would help but even having that places us both at risk.”

 

“So you left so we couldn’t…. so you wouldn’t…..”

 

“You’re not seeing the bigger picture here. There are many players in this game. Some are our allies and some are not. There are those that want a child of our making to exist and those who would execute either one of us on the spot. Apart I don’t think either would dare risk touching us in case of early retaliation. I left so you would live and so our son or daughter would never exist and that is why it is too dangerous for you to be here, that is why you have to leave and forget about me.”

 

“I don’t accept that. There must be other woman and men just like you and me.”

 

“They are dead!”

 

“Well how do you know they aren’t continuing the tests? Making others just like us.”

 

“I don’t but there is nothing I can do about them. I can’t control what happens to others only to you and me. Besides I think we both know how valuable you and I are in this little experiment. We are like expensive puppets with suits and alien’s fighting over the strings. I’m working hard to see if modern science has any answers.”

 

“There are others ways to prevent a pregnancy Katherine. Do you have such little faith in me that you believe I couldn’t restrain myself?”

 

She laughed. “There is a chip in my neck that has recreated my reproductive cycle, you don’t think whoever created that kind of technology thought of that!?”

 

Ok now he was getting nervous.

 

“Who could I trust if I was to have any kind of surgery that would eliminate the chance of a pregnancy. How could I ever be sure my ovum weren’t stolen again and sold to the highest bidder? I’ve had two miscarriages Mulder and I have never had unprotected sex. Even condoms have a 2% failure rate and hormonal contraceptives have proved ineffective. In a perfectly designed reproductive system, there is little that would stop its success.” The harshness in her tone ceased momentarily. “You and me, the way I……” ‘feel’ - she couldn’t say it. “We both know it would’ve only been a matter of time.”

 

“I… I don’t know what to say.”

 

“Don’t say anything. Just listen to me. Give me your sample and get as far away from me as you can.”

 

“I don’t think I can.”

 

“You have to” She finally released her hold of him lifting her hands and the gun to either side of her head. To anyone watching it would look like she was surrendering, she had negotiated well. They both lay still for a few moments. Both held their hands in surrender. Starring each other down, unsure about what next move either one of them should take. Their bodies, it seemed, decided for them. They started to communicate without speaking; they never needed real words anyway. Powerless to stop it she was suddenly drenched in the memory of the last time she sat upon him in this way and her hips of their own accord began a steady rock. That fateful night where she’d practically dragged him to his bedroom by his lips. She’d given him no choice. It had been her way of saying goodbye and a magnitude of other things she was forbidden to speak out loud. Just one night, she told herself. The universe could give them just one time and she was careful. He’d looked better than she had imagined from this position. The memories she was reliving in that moment didn’t give him justice. He seemed to be remembering too. She could feel him grow beneath her and whether he meant to or not he tilted his pelvis, lifting her ever so slightly with him off the mattress. The hand not holding the gun fell to his stomach to brace her. A shot of pleasure rattled unchecked through her. She was whispering still but her whispers no longer sounded like deadly secrets but of a lover’s confession in the dark. “I know you want me. You may even think you love me but it’s not real.” She had to grip his shirt when he thrust up this time. Her eyes closed and a small groan came from somewhere she had forgotten existed. How would she explain this if someone was watching? After all, the gun was still sitting in her free hand.

 

Mulder had been restraining himself up until this point. He no longer could lie there with his hands tied. He reached up and gripped her hips adjusting her slightly so her centre now sat flush against him. She felt like putty in his hands.

 

Scully couldn’t believe how quickly the fire was set in her belly. He was rocking her down hard against him and each time she felt a shot of pleasure flash through her so intense she was helpless to fight it. “It’s not real, it’s not real.” She chanted as if she was trying to will it to be so.

 

With little effort he flipped her until she was underneath him and he was pressing hard into her stomach. The silk pyjamas she was wearing and the cotton boxers he was wearing offered little to the imagination. They completely forgot she was still holding a loaded weapon. Even now that it sat poetically in both of their hands above her head. He thrust into her again and again and her shirt began to ride up high, exposing the tempting flesh of her abdomen.

 

The orgasm inside her was brewing faster than she could control. This was wrong, this was confusing. Her fake orgasms took longer than this! Her resolve had completely dissolved, her legs butterflied, her knees pushing higher, deeper into the mattress seeming to ignore the rationale part of her brain that was screaming at her to kick him away.

 

Gaining an ounce of perspective he pushed the gun to the side and out of reach. He craved the taste of her lips. He wanted to kiss her more than anything else happening between them in that moment but he couldn’t. She would need to be the one who initiated that. A kiss from her would tell him more than any of the horrible things she had just told him. The animal instinct in him had his almost predatory gaze locked on hers. There was no tenderness involved here. This was carnal need in its purest form. Six years of hoping and dreaming that he would be here again “There’s one problem with your theory.”

 

His voice was like water to the inferno inside of her. Her orgasm ebbed slightly as her body started to respond to the screams of her rationale thoughts. As he continued to speak she pulled further and further away from him.

 

“We’ve made love before.”

 

She pushed him slightly, stiffening. She was suddenly very aware of how easily she had fallen into this. Time may have heightened the thrill but it only amplified the danger. She was shaking, breathless her body a turbulent battle of push and pull. “We used a condom.” She gasped.

 

He stilled his movements but lay hovering above her, “only the first time.”

 

She pushed abruptly from him sitting up against the headboard holding him by the shoulder at arm’s length. She looked confused, her eyes darting around searching the memory she had fought so hard to forget. “The second time was just with your…” She looked down at his full bottom lip and the tip of the tongue hidden slightly behind it. The things it had done to her that night.

 

He knew what she meant and bent down to run that lip and tongue along her exposed stomach, slowly making their way to the waist band of her silky bottoms. “The third time there was no condom.”

 

She struggled free, kicking and pushing him away until she stood at the edge of the bed. The gun was back in both of her hands and pointing directly back at him. The second and third time had blurred into one. She had been the instigator. She didn’t blame him at all especially as she was the only one who knew just how big that little detail was. It had been a calculated risk even then and now how easily they had slipped into each other’s arms again.   “Oh god can’t you see! Look at us! This isn’t real Mulder. We are programmed to feel like this.”

 

He sat up and covered himself with the blanket. He couldn’t handle being so aroused and mostly naked with the woman he wanted more than his next breath pointing a gun at him.

 

He hung his head “I won’t accept that.”

 

“You have no choice.” She spoke each word separately, desperately and began to cry.

 

The gun shook in her hands, her bottom lip quivered. He stood and stepped into her, leaning in so the gun pressed into his sternum. Her finger sat unsettled on the trigger. They both looked at the barrel of the gun digging into the small thatch of hair peaking over the neckline of his singlet. “I won’t leave you again. We are stronger together and you know it. If what you say is true then I’m not leaving until we have found a way to solve this” His attention turned from the gun to the tear falling down her cheek. “You’ll have to shoot me.”

 

She closed her eyes damning the tears and composed herself. The gun was lowered and he stepped further into her. Her wet eyelids flickered and then she was looking up at him again. He wanted her to rise up onto her tip toes and kiss him the way she did so long ago. “Tell me you didn’t mean what you said that day.” He whispered.

 

She exhaled harshly and shook her head. “I can’t give you what you want.”

 

 

 

When Mulder walked out of his bedroom that morning he found himself amongst a scene he recalled seeing once on day time television. One of those soaps they play in between Oprah and Dr Phill. Jasmine, the maid he had met the previous morning was nervously cutting fresh fruit while simultaneously watching a pan of bacon and eggs. Katherine (he was slowly adjusting to calling her that) was sitting at the breakfast bar in the same spot she was in the night before with him. Michael had just arrived home from his morning run and was trying to hold an awkward conversation with his buttoned up wife and the woman he was so clearly sleeping with. He leaned down and kissed his wife tenderly on the edge of her mouth. She scrunched up her face and dropped her coffee mid sip. “Go and shower darling.”

 

No-one had spotted him yet, standing lurking in the archway and for a short moment he thought his plane ride here was just an allusion. That he had somehow jumped universes instead of flying across the country. This house was like a weird alternate reality, a different planet revolving around the same sun and he was some unbalanced force or comet ready to knock it off its axis. She spotted him finally and adjusted herself nervously in her seat, switching personalities again as she shuffled. It was as if she was an actress on a stage playing the role of this Katherine person. Last night, amongst the darkness of course, he thought he saw his Scully again. He heard her speak ‘Scully speak’, he tasted the milky skin that ran along her strong stomach and heard her fierce heart beating beneath. This Katherine person was a stranger to him and he wondered if he could ever grow to like her.

 

“Agent Mulder.” Michael was the first to acknowledge his presence. It was little comfort seeing him continue to play the role of his friend. “You missed an excellent run again this morning.”

 

Mulder looked a little embarrassed, his so called friend looked in much better shape than him in that moment. The sweat and testosterone was just oozing out of every pore. Of course Scully was attracted to him. All she could smell on Mulder was painful memories and pungent alien oil. “Maybe I’ll join you another time.” He said.

 

A long, uncomfortable silence was endured then. Katherine sipped cautiously on her obviously very hot coffee, Jasmine tried not to burn the breakfast or look like she was starring to long at Michael who was looking at all three of them in turn as if contemplating what the next appropriate thing is to say. Mulder smirked, was it possible for four people who held so many naughty secrets between them really hold up a “normal” conversation. Michael was the one to bail first, seemed fitting given that he had slept with 50% of the people in the room and 100% of them knew it. “Well I might head up to the shower.” He said flicking his discarded shirt over his broad right shoulder. Jasmine paused her chopping abruptly and then recommenced a lot more softly as if everyone hadn’t just noticed it. “I’ll be down shortly. Katherine will you be riding in with me this morning?”

 

She pointed her chin confidently in his direction. “No actually I’ll take Agent Mulder in with me soon to the lab. I’ve offered to look over his case file.”

 

Mulder liked a good soap opera and if she was playing the dutiful wife and Michael was playing the faithful, successful husband Mulder could easily step in as the obnoxious, comic relief that everyone hated. “Yes I believe Dr Thompson requires something from me too. Isn’t that right?” he teased. He knew she would think he was bold enough to announce she wanted his sperm. Of course he didn’t though, it was much more fun this way. He smirked “I really do appreciate you giving me a hand this morning,” and took great pleasure in the fact that she was gapping at him. “On this case.” He finished.

 

Michael’s eyes shuffled suspiciously between the pair. He had been so caught up in saving his own ass he hadn’t stopped to really look at them and consider exactly how they knew each other. He looked too his wife for an explanation.

 

Katherine cleared her throat nervously “Agent Mulder has offered to look at one of my side projects.” She clarified.

 

Michael seemed to accept this as an acceptable explanation. “Well be sure to drop by and see me afterwards Agent Mulder. I would like to discuss some concerns I have regarding your case. Perhaps you could come back for dinner with us tonight? You could tell me more about how you and Katherine know each other? Maybe you two have some wild FBI stories you could share?”

 

“You have no idea” Mulder muttered.

 

“Excuse me?”

 

“I said ‘what a good idea.’” He raised his voice again. “But I’m going to head back to Washington tonight.”

 

Both Katherine and Michael gapped at him then. After she had left him in the early hours of the morning he lay there and thought hard about what he should do now that he had all the information he thought he would ever need. First and foremost he needed his partner and his bosses off his back. Knowing she was here was valuable information and he couldn’t risk spreading it around until it landed into the wrong persons hands. He really didn’t need Malcom knowing or being a part of this regardless. He had managed to keep her a secret from him this long. So he decided that he would spend the morning playing lab rat with Katherine and then wrap his case up, tie a cute little bow around it and hand it to his partner and superiors. With them off his back and with a quick visit to his favourite little tabloid ‘The Lone Gunman’, he would return so he could figure out how to get her home with him. All good TV shows had to end eventually, even the daily soap operas. Guy takes down evil-bad man, gets the girl, and saves the world all that sort of stuff. So he sent an email to Malcom and Skinner with his flight itinerary and a cherry note indicating he would have the report on their respective desks by 9am the next morning so there was no need for Malcom to come and get him.

 

“You’re leaving?” Michael and Katherine said together.

 

He shifted nervously on his feet. “Yeah, I need to check in at the FBI, they tend to keep me on a very short leash.”

 

Katherine looked equally relieved and saddened by his announcement; Michael looked like he was starting to sweat again. Neither of them knew what to say. Mulder was reluctant to give too much away so moved further into the kitchen taking a seat next to Katherine and then completely changed the subject. “Is the coffee still hot?”

 

Michael composed himself “Be sure to leave me some. I’m heading to that shower. Agent Mulder I’ll see you this afternoon sometime?” Mulder nodded “Darling I may not make it home for dinner tonight after all.” He looked un-genuinely sorry at her and left without saying goodbye.

 

“Didn’t he just invite me to dinner?” Mulder asked when Michael was out of ear shot.

 

“I guess something just came up.” Katherine dismissed it. “Can we get coffee and breakfast at the hospital? I’d really like to get to work early.” She stood and gathered her briefcase and jacket heading for the door. He watched her momentarily and then realised he was supposed to be following.

 

 

The car ride in began with a long sombre silence. The radio station was set to some happy morning show where the DJ’s were making their way through a list of winners. One by one a caller squealed with delight through the car speakers as if they had won a million dollars and not just a ticket to some low budget movie premiere. “Geoff stop I can’t take any more of this ridiculous excitement.” The female DJ pretended to plead to her male co-host “Play some music will you.” Suddenly the car was filled with familiar piano notes that made Mulder smile. The male radio host dipped his voice to a deep sultry level “How about a little bit of Cher?” he timed it so another line of piano notes filled the car “Let’s put on our blue suede shoes and take a walk in Memphis.” The vocal section of the song started. Katherine exhaled harshly and then poked at the radio switching the channel to some classical music that Mulder didn’t recognise. He copied her sharp exhale. “You know I had this dream last night.”

 

If she was interested she didn’t let on, her hands sat firmly in the ten and two position her eyes fixed upon the road.

 

“We were at your old apartment in Georgetown, which is owned by a grumpy old man now by the way, and we were in your bed.”

 

“Mulder…”

 

“But standing at each corner post of the bed was someone watching us.”

 

“Mulder!”

 

“Skinner was there and the smoking man. An alien and for some reason Frohike.” He pretended to shudder.

 

“Mulder”

 

“I know, why Frohike right? Although he has always had a weird thing about you and me. Anyway at the end they all held up a score card, you know like they do in synchronised swimming?” She didn’t bother interrupting him with his name this time. He was looking over at her for a reaction and she wasn’t going to dignify that with one. “Skinner gave us a ‘2’, the alien gave us a ‘9’ and so did cancerman. I think Frohike was just happy to be there. Skinner was clearly jealous.”

 

“Mulder” she tried again.

 

“I wonder why we only got a 9 from the others though. Could they be holding back that one point until they are sure sperm actually met egg?”

 

“Mulder that sounds ridiculous.”

 

“It does doesn’t it. It sounds unbelievably ridiculous.”

 

He watched her grip tighten on the steering wheel. She wanted to tear shreds off him, he could tell. Clearly she was holding back for some reason. He flicked the radio station back to the previous channel. Cher was just finishing ‘Walking in Memphis’ fittingly right at the line “But do I really feel the way I feel.” It brought to his mind a clear picture of that day. The way he twirled her on the dance floor and the giddy rear smile she couldn’t wipe off her face for hours afterwards. It made him feel incredibly guilty. Arguing with her was getting him no-where. He needed a different approach. “Can we start over please?”

 

She looked slowly over at him like he just announced he had quit the FBI to take up a career in solo singing. “What do you mean?”

 

He took out his hand. “Hi I’m Special Agent Fox Mulder with the FBI. I grew up mainly in Massachusetts. My only sister disappeared without a trace and both my mother and father are dead. I’m mostly single.” He emphasised the mostly. “red/green colour blind, some would call me a little spooky and cursed with a photographic memory.” He paused momentarily. “Nice to meet you.”

 

Katherine looked down at his hand but didn’t shake it. “What are you doing?”

 

“I haven’t seen you in six years.”

 

“Six and a half.” She interrupted

 

“Actually six years, five months, 26 days and.” he checked his watch “1 hour.” She looked over at him in disbelief. “What? I told you I had a good memory, you didn’t think I’d forget that moment did you?” He gave her a few moments to consider. “I want to know Katherine Thompson. How did she get here? Is she happy?” She kept her eyes firmly on the road. She didn’t speak for so long he was sure she wasn’t going to.

 

“My name is Dr Katherine Thompson. I am a medical Doctor currently working in a specialist lab in the field of genetics and infertility.” She kept her eyes firmly on the road as she spoke. His heart quickened in anticipation of the story she was about to tell. “Six and a half years ago I left my job as an agent at the FBI where I worked on a top secret project that I am unable to disclose, to take some personal time. For a year I travelled around the country, spent some time getting to know remote areas. I hiked for three months sleeping in cabins and tents within the mountains.”

 

No wonder he couldn’t find her.

 

“After a year or so I decided it was time to settle down. I’ve always had a keen interest in genetics and so when I discovered this hospital had the most prestigious genetics laboratory in the country I thought this would be a great place for me to live and start working again.” She looked briefly over at him, scarily slipping into this character so well. She probably practiced these lies every day in front of her reflection in the mirror. “I began working as a Doctor on the surgical ward, mainly in obstetrics and gynaecology and that’s where I met my now husband Michael. His father owned the hospital at the time and he was busy trying to impress him so he could be the head of the plastics department. I kept a low profile and didn’t really make many friends or have any family close by so his attention towards me grew into a friendship and even though I knew he felt more than that towards me it was nice to have one person to talk to.”

 

Mulder licked his lips nervously and then looked toward the moving scenery outside his window. He couldn’t imagine how lonely she must have felt.

 

“Michael’s father died and left him everything in his will, his hospital, his fortune, everything. The night of his father’s funeral Michael came to my apartment, grief stricken and full of booze. I gave him food and coffee and listened for hours about all of the wonderful things he was going to do with his father’s fortune. He wanted to build more hospitals. He specialised in breast reconstruction and wanted to help breast cancer survivors by getting them their surgeries quicker. He knew I wanted to work in the genetics lab and said that now he was in charge I could run it if I wanted. He genuinely wanted to help people who needed it. We talked for hours and hours until the sun came up and well I fell in love with this vision of his and….” Katherine looked shyly at her lap.

 

Mulder ran his hand down his face. He could connect the dots, it didn’t take a genius to work out that Michael was madly in love with her and she was now in love with what they could do together as a team. He wondered if they did it right there on the couch or whether he took her by the hand to the bedroom. Did she kiss him first or did he kiss her? On second thoughts he didn’t want to know. He didn’t think she would elaborate either so he turned his attention back to the passing scenery. Unfortunately they were stopped in traffic so all he could see were business men and woman adjusting their ties and applying lipstick in their rear vision mirrors. He almost wished she would stop talking.

 

“Four months later I was starting my new job in my amazing new laboratory. Finally with access to start some personal projects I had been hoping to get working on. Michael already had plans to build a new hospital and the previous head of genetics I was working with was set to start a new laboratory there. Michael was happy again and I was happy to have someone to talk to at dinner again. I was cautious after all a long term relationship was not really on my agenda, so imagine my surprise when I discovered I was pregnant.” She never broke character even when Mulder buried her under a stare of complete disbelief. His stomach sat somewhere around his ankles just thinking about how utterly terrified that discovery must have been for her. She nodded and then moved slowly forward into the traffic as the lights changed to green. “I was not supposed to be able to have children you see and to be extra safe we had taken all of the necessary precautions, so you can imagine how surprised I was.” She was speaking to him like she really was telling a new friend her life story. “It took me a while to get used to it and honestly I had my hesitations about telling Michael but a hospital is a small place and he showed up at my scheduled ultrasound. There was no denying it, there he was. It was a boy.” Mulder was uncomfortable at how she was actually smiling while telling this story. “He had ten fingers and ten toes and was already at 14 weeks gestation.”

 

As Katherine told her story Mulder translated it into Scully’s in his head. How did she conceive let alone carry the child to that gestation. Given the story she had shared with him earlier that morning, she must have been scared out of her mind.

 

“Michael was so happy that he was going to have a son and someone to carry on his father’s legacy just as he had done. He proposed to me on the spot.”

 

Mulder didn’t even realise they had stopped and were now sitting in the dark hospital parking building. The tone in her voice changed slightly as she seemed to jump back into her Scully skin. “Should I go on?” He didn’t know what to say. Should she? “Perhaps we should get out of the car first?” she suggested, after all, the car was probably bugged. Maybe a conversation inside the carpark would be a lot more private. He watched her open the car door and go and sit on the bonnet directly in front of him. He hesitated before opening his own door and joining her. He sat down carefully next to her wanting to draw out this moment as long as he could. It was clear this story didn’t have a happy ending.

 

She looked blankly at the hard concrete wall in front of them as if it could possibly offer her some inspiration. She was back to being his Scully again. “I got married Mulder. I officially changed my name and began working where I thought I could help us. I had no control and no idea about what was going on in my own body, do you have any idea how that felt? Looking at this through Michael’s eyes was the only thing that kept me going. A wife, a family, money, a new life and a chance to see if I could figure out this mess. So I said I’d marry him.” She paused and gathered a shaky breath. “I lost the baby two weeks later.”

 

Mulder hadn’t spoken for a long time. He had so many questions but there was only one he really wanted to know the answer to. “Are you happy?”

 

She narrowed her eyes as she contemplated an answer. “There have been moments where I felt happy.” She said diplomatically. “Standing on a mountain top having achieved such a huge climb and truly appreciating the beauty of a sunset knowing that it would rise tomorrow. Seeing my family again after four long years, especially my nieces and nephews. There have been many happy couples I have successfully given a child in my line of work and I am definitely happy I can give them that. My wedding day. It was just at a registry office but the way Michael looked at me.” She looked off into that memory. “I haven’t been looked at like that in a long time.”

 

Mulder was acutely aware that he featured in none of that. He twisted his toe on the pavement like a scared child “Do you love him?”

 

She looked out into a space he didn’t occupy. “I don’t think I even know what that means.” He couldn’t even look at her and the silence between them stretched even further. “I thought I did once. But the more I thought about it and I have had a lot of time to think about it. The more I thought about it the more I realised that what we think is love is actually just basic science. A chemical reaction designed to attract compatible genes to ensure the continuation of a species.”

 

“Geez Katherine. Do you actually believe that?”

 

She scuffed her own feet against the cold floor. “I don’t know what I believe Mulder.” She drew a shaky breath “But my husband who says he loves me more than anything apparently loves the one thing I can’t give him more” subconsciously she began twirling the wedding rings on her finger. “I tried everything to prevent further pregnancies and yet I got pregnant again and lost that baby at nearly 20 weeks gestation. I watched him fall a little less ‘in love’ with me and then start looking elsewhere for more compatible genes. What does that tell you?”

 

“That’s a really sad way to look at the world Katherine and I don’t truly believe that you think that.”

 

She sighed heavily “It doesn’t matter anyway.”

 

If a car had come into the building while they sat there on that hood, hidden in a dark corner, neither of them heard it. The temperature seemed to plummet taking on a ghostly kind of atmosphere. Mulder felt a cold breeze wisp around his pant legs and shuddered. Since she left him she has protected herself by becoming isolated from the world and minimising direct human contact. The one person she had opened herself up to let her down and the files he carried only extended that betrayal further. So much had been taken from her, time and time again, she couldn’t even trust her own body. No wonder she had developed such a clinical way to look at life and human relationships. If you don’t believe in love then how could you lose it or want it for that matter. He honestly didn’t know what to say to her so he clutched her hand instead. It was sitting right there next to him on top of the cooling hood. He picked it up and laced her fingers with his. The contact actually made her jump.

 

“What are you doing?” She genuinely looked concerned at their hands as if fearful he was about to harm her.

 

He stood and pulled her to standing with him close enough that he could take her other hand too.

 

“Mulder what are you doing?”

 

He continued to pull her into him until she was flush against him. His hands carried hers around him until they rested on the small of his back and then he threw his own arms around her into a tight embrace. She remained stiff in his arms, scared. Could it really be that long since someone just wanted to hold her? “What are you doing?” She repeated.

 

He pulled her closer, letting her head bury further into his chest. “This is called a hug, otherwise known as a cuddle or deep embrace.” It took a long time for her to finally concede and relax against him. The sound of her breath echoed off his chest as it calmed and slowed. He felt her eventually close her yes and melt into him and it made him smile into her hair, his chin resting neatly on top of her head. Many minutes passed but neither cared to count them or notice anybody watching. They were warm against each other in that dark, cold, ghostly corner. It suited them well. He never wanted to let her go and that had nothing to do with pheromones and genetics. Katherine was sad and alone. He needed to find Scully she was in there somewhere. He’d find her, he had no other choice. “You know before all of this, right up until and including that night. You were my friend.” She hiccupped against him, “and you will always be my family.”

 

 

 

 

Mulder tucked his little container between his knees so he could wash his hands under the faucet. Was this supposed to feel dirty? It sure felt dirty or disturbing in some kind of way. If Katherine was correct his little container of spunky junk was extremely valuable. That was almost laughable considering the volume of the stuff he could produce on a weekly basis. She told him it was important to keep the sample warm so he heated his hands under the dryer and tucked the container back into his palm, clutching it tightly. He had been in there far too long but knowing she was out there and knew what he was doing, after what they were doing just last night and then on top of that - what they had talked about in the car. All of this thinking was awfully distracting and thinking was not what got this process done quickly. He sheepishly exited the bathroom and went back into the lab. She was alone and sitting in front of a large microscope, peering through the lenses and adjusting something delicately on the plate. He cleared his throat next to her, announcing his arrival. She looked up at him seemingly oblivious to the fact that he had just completed a solo performance, just down the hall, probably thinking about her. He held the sample out in front of him and she took it from him. “You know I pictured this exchange going completely differently.” That actually got a smile. He made a joke and she actually smiled. This was small progress but he carefully air marked in his head as one point in his corner.

 

She removed the sample under the microscope that she had just been looking at and replaced it with his. It felt like he was being sized up as she looked back through the long odd looking lenses and began adjusting the sight. She was looking for a long time and not really saying anything. He didn’t really know what it was she wanted or hoped to see but he felt like he was slowly shrinking under her clinical analyses. “Everything in order?” He asked as if he was enquiring about building supplies and not his manhood.

 

“Do you really want me to analyse this out loud.”

 

He circled his fingers under his belt nervously “yeah sure. Lay it down for me.”

 

She turned briefly from the microscope to smile at him and then went back to the task at hand. “The sample volume is on the higher end of normal at 4.5mls.”

 

“So there’s lots of it? Good good.” He said as if he knew if that was good or not.

 

“Normal consistency and density, sperm count is high.”

 

“mm hmm, mm hmm”

 

“Minimal dysmorphic sperm.”

 

“Dysmorphic sperm?” he repeated

 

“It’s a good sample Mulder, what would you like me to say?”

 

“I don’t know Katherine but forgive me for feeling a little analysed here.”

 

She smiled again. That was the third one this morning he was going to give himself another point for that.

 

“Hang on a minute.” She adjusted the giant nobs

 

“What, what’s wrong with it?”

 

Her forehead scrunched and she adjusted the nobs again, “interesting.”

 

“What? Tell me. Do they only have three fingers or something?”

 

She didn’t look up from the lens. “Sperm don’t have fingers Mulder.”

 

“You know what I mean? What’s wrong with it?”

 

“Absolutely nothing.”

 

“Huh?”

 

“It is probably the most perfect specimen I have ever analysed. There are no dead spermatozoa.”

 

“A superior sample you say Doc?”

 

“That’s not normal Mulder. You would expect around a 40% drop off. I’ve seen a good sample at only 30% but this. This is not normal” She was quick to shut him down.

 

Her legitimate disgust deflated him. He was secretly harbouring hopes that she wouldn’t find what she was looking for, that she was wrong and would only discover a normal, healthy human sample. No oil patches in sight. She picked up the sample and threw it in a nearby biohazard bag. “Hey.” He reached out as if he meant to grab it. “What are you doing?”

 

“I can’t risk having that laying around here. I’ll get another sample later for a more in depth DNA analysis.” She looked far too casual about saying that.

 

“Excuse me Dr Thompson, but I am not a machine. Six years ago I may have been able to provide a couple of samples in a few hours but…”

 

“Shhhhhh.”

 

He puffed out a breath through his nose, frustrated with her paranoia, funny how the tables have turned. “I’ll give it to you in a few days when I return from Washington.”

 

“What! No Mulder you can’t come back here. I thought we talked about this. It’s not safe for us to be around each other.”

 

“Why? Are you afraid I won’t be able to keep my hands of you or that you won’t keep yours off me?”

 

“No I’m afraid you will end up dead!” She stopped him in his tracks.

 

He paused a beat to consider her words and asses if she was genuine in her statement. “I’ve been here for two days and so far you are the only one who has pulled a gun on me. Twice I might add. You said it yourself there are those out to get us and those out to protect us. What makes you think we are any safer apart? Or how is it any different to the first six years of our partnership?”

 

She looked away and began packing things up onto their shelves. Glass was dangerously close to breaking, weird looking instruments and samples were thrown half hazardless around the room. He followed her closely not willing to let her leave him unanswered. When she ran out of equipment to take her anger out on and backed into a corner she finally turned to face him. That confidence and stubbornness lost on her features now. “Because that’s why I left and that’s what I told myself every day since I’ve been gone.”

 

She couldn’t be wrong. The knowledge that she was keeping them both alive was the only thing that got her up each morning, if she was wrong than it had all been for nothing. “If everything you say is true than why did I find you now? There were plenty of opportunities for us to be together. God do you have any idea how long I wanted you?” She looked surprised by that. How could she of not known. “I was always waiting for you to decide. I’m sorry but I don’t believe that someone ‘programmed’ me to love you so we could make some ‘super baby’…..”

 

“Shhhhh” she said a lot less harshly this time. She obviously wanted to hear the end of this confession.

 

He dipped his head down to her a little lower so he could whisper. “I’m just saying if fertilisation was the only agenda. That night that you said meant nothing.” Now she couldn’t face him “It would have happened a long,” He curved her jaw in his hand and traced her chin with his thumb, tilting her mouth temptingly to his, “long time ago.”

 

He was not going to be the one to kiss her first. Even if the thought of someone shooting him right now was less painful than waiting for her to be the one to make that first move. He thought he could tell that she felt the same way, she wanted to kiss him. He saw it last night and he could see it now but something that hadn’t waned over these years apart, was her ability to argue that she was right. He kept needing to prove to her that she was the one in control of this, of them and in this moment that meant releasing her and stepping away.

 

Someone pushed through the laboratory doors whistling as he walked. He was looking down at his feet and therefore nearly walked straight into Mulder. “Oh Excuse me.” It was the lab tech he had met briefly the day before. “Are you lost? I’m sorry sir but you can’t be back here.”

 

Katherine stepped out of her corner. “It’s Ok Justin, he’s here helping me.”

 

“Dr Thompson, I didn’t see you back there.” He looked back at Mulder and then his boss who was looking flushed and nervous. “Is everything alright?”

 

Katherine forced a smile. “Yes, this is Agent Mulder. He is here conducting an investigation for the FBI and I’m assisting him with his enquiries.”

 

Mulder looked over at the case file still sitting next to her microscope unopened. “Yes but perhaps we could go somewhere more private?” He hinted to Justin.

 

“Oh I’m just on my way to my break. I just needed to get my ipod from out the back.” He pointed to a closed door at the back of the lab and began walking towards it. When he came back out, the ears of his headphones dangling from one of his hands he found Katherine and Mulder standing awkwardly in the same spots he had left them in. “Are you sure you’re ok Dr Thompson?”

 

“Fine.” She nodded “Take an hour Justin. We don’t have anything pressing to do today.”

 

“Great thanks.” He plugged his ears and started fiddling with the buttons on his ipod. It was so quiet in that lab Mulder could hear the music blaring through the tiny speakers. It didn’t stop until the doors were closed firmly behind him. “Katherine..”

 

“Can we just look over your case? Come into the back office there is a large table we can spread ourselves out on.” She turned towards the back room and could immediately feel his smirk on her back. “Spread our files out on.” She clarified.

 

 

 

She sat and he stood. Placing pieces of paper individually down in front of her as he spoke. “This patient Gregory Hosking came into this hospital in the early hours of the morning on the 23rd of this month. According to his admission note his injuries were consistent with an automobile accident.” He slapped the admission note down directly under her nose. “The reason I came here was because I was told he was actually a multiple abductee who had been missing for four months and was never admitted but rather appeared without anyone knowing where he came from or who brought him in.”

 

“So your source was wrong.”

 

“Possibly but if you look closely this admission form has been forged.”

 

She scanned over the piece of paper with an investigators eye, nothing obvious jumped out at her but he wasn’t willing to wait until she found it. He stabbed the corner of the page pushing it out of her hands. “There is an impression here from the carbon copy of a previous admissions form. Notice it postdates this one.”

 

“Ok. Cut to the chase Mulder.” She leant back in her chair. He didn’t really want her to read through it all he just liked being animated when he told her his conspiracy theory. All he needed was a slideshow clicker in his hand and they were back in the basement of the FBI.

 

“I went to visit Mr Hosking yesterday, straight after gathering this information from Dr Thompson.”

 

“And..”

 

“And the patient the lovely nurse directed me to. Who had Mr Hosking observation chart clipped to the end of his bed was not Mr Hosking.”

 

“How do you know?”

 

“First of all he had ‘get well’ cards on his drawers and a child’s picture above his head.”

 

“and”

 

“Mr Hosking had no family.”

 

“Maybe his friends sent them to him.”

 

“From my understanding the only friends Greg Hosking had were MUFON members and Psych patients. This was not him. He looked like him, he had similar injuries and the same blood type but it was not him. Your Husband and the nurse, who was clearly one of his former patients just wanted me to believe it was him.”

 

“And you are basing this solely on a few ‘get well’ cards.”

 

He joined her at the table, taking the seat right alongside of her moving confidently into her personal space. “If you break a bone there is always evidence of this on an x-ray correct?”

 

She nodded watching him pull an x-ray film from the file.

 

“I’m not a radiologist but this x-ray shows three broken ribs and two healthy collar bones.”

 

She took the film in her hand and held it up to the light. “Correct. Ribs are often broken from the seatbelt in a car accident.”

 

“No collarbone injury.”

 

“No.”

 

“Mr Hosking cracked his collar bone climbing through the window of a hardware store when he was 14.” She contemplated in silence watching him pull a blood laboratory report from underneath the admission form. “Mr Hosking was an alcoholic and medicated schizophrenic and yet this toxicology report is clean.”

 

She pretended to read the lab report while thinking of a logical response. The pressure of his anticipation was bouncing off the shoulder where he sat. “Maybe the contrast was slightly off when the x-ray was taken. Trauma x-rays are hard to get exactly right, that could explain why you can’t see the old fracture. Maybe it’s there you just can’t see it.”

 

He nodded settling back into his chair.

 

“Paranoid schizophrenics often are non-compliant with taking their medication. He could have been sober and off his meds.”

 

“And the forged admission slip?”

 

“It’s a busy ED perhaps no one filled one out and then when they knew you were going to be looking through the paperwork they quickly went back and wrote one from memory.” Suddenly something strange occurred to her “Mulder how did you get all of this. These files are confidential. No judge would give you a warrant based on what you just told me.”

 

He sat forward in his seat again “I know! That’s the next strange thing. Dr Thompson, Michael, your husband just handed them to me. He was desperate to get rid of me and now for some strange reason he wants me to stay.”

 

She blinked in response.

 

“The Gunmen led me here, they knew this was a genuine abduction case and now they tell me some bogus story about this guy being on CCTV instead of missing and want me to come back to Washington. In fact I’m confident they told my partner where to find me.”

 

“You have a new partner?”

 

“Of course I have a new partner you didn’t think they would let me out alone did you?” She shrugged; they had completely gone off the point. “His name is Malcom. He’s a royal pain in my arse and doesn’t look nearly as good as you in thigh high stockings.” She snickered at that. “Anyway Malcom can’t stand The Gunmen, he doesn’t trust them and they wouldn’t willingly contact him unless they were desperate. They lied to me Katherine. I asked them to look into this for me and they conveniently didn’t discover Michael was married to you. I suspect when they saw that they panicked and lied to me hoping I wouldn’t find you.”

 

“You seem to have figured this all out Mulder. What do you want me to do?”

 

“Aren’t you curious?”

 

“No Mulder, you haven’t shown me anything to make me curious.”

 

“You disappeared too Katherine.” The pain written over her face made him hesitant to carry on. These were memories neither of them wanted to relive. “You showed up in a hospital with no admission record and no-one could explain your injuries.”

 

“This is different! I was not a paranoid Schizophrenic who believed he was abducted by Aliens.”

 

“No you weren’t. So why, out of all of the hospitals in this country did he land in this one? Why did it lead me here, to you, after all this time? And perhaps more importantly, where the hell is he now?”

 

She shook her head and cradled it in her hand. There was a headache brewing behind her eyes.

 

“Why did I find you now?” he repeated knowing she wouldn’t answer. The next thing he had to tell her was going to be difficult. There was no point beating around the bush, she hated when he did that anyway “I hate to be the one to tell you this.” She looked up at him with fear in her eyes. “Your husband and his associates are scamming insurance companies for millions of dollars.”

 

“What? No”

 

“I’m sorry he is and I suspect that is why he tidied up the file and handed it to me on a silver platter, hoping I would leave it alone and go home before I uncovered more than just aliens. It’s simply a coincidence that he also covered up this man’s legitimate abduction. Now imagine my confusion when he turns around and wants me to stay.”

 

“Michael knows nothing about this! He knows nothing about my past or history with the FBI.” She pushed herself away from the table and stood, pacing across the floor like a caged animal, her hand covering her mouth.

 

Mulder stayed in his seat giving her the space she needed. “I believe that Katherine I really don’t think he knows anything beyond the insurance scam.”

 

“What do you want from me?”

 

He stood and followed her until she slowed her steps and allowed him close to her. “I want you to look up the real Greg Hosking. You have access on the computer. Find his real lab reports, his x-rays. I want you to look for the same things we found in your medical report.”

 

Her hand automatically went to the small lump on the back of her neck. He wanted her to look for evidence of space travel and metal implants. She nodded reluctantly.

 

“I have to meet with Dr Thompson. Are you going to be ok?” he rested his hand on her shoulder.

 

She brushed it off like his touch scolded her deeply “I’m fine. Take your files. I’ll meet you on my lunch break. I think you know where to find me.”

 

He left like a wounded puppy with his tail between his legs and his spine standing up on end.

 

When he got to Michaels office he found the desk of his personal secretary empty. He’d busted down doors without announcement before but the last thing he needed was to create a scene that would draw attention to him so he took a seat in the comfy couch next to the desk. Not known for being able to wait patiently though he soon became fidgety. His hands clasped and unclasped in his lap, they clapped and tapped impatiently. This was hopeless, he couldn’t wait to be invited. He was expected. He should just knock on the door. Dammit he should just open the door and storm in. Michael Thompson was a crook. He was jimmying paperwork and doctoring surgical notes so he could claim more money off insurance companies, without patient knowledge. He was dirty and an adulterous asshole and Mulder wondered why he hadn’t arrested him already. So he stood, why not take this opportunity to look over his PA’s desk and see if there was anything there that would explain why he suddenly wanted Mulder to hang around. Unfortunately the desk was bare, the drawers were locked and the computer was password protected. He looked at the large office door, his name and title in gold plated letters just made him angrier. Stuff it, he couldn’t wait anymore. His fist hit the door hard but he didn’t wait for a reply he just pushed the door open and entered. The sight before him made him regret this decision instantly. Dr Thompson was lip locked with a woman that was most definitely not his wife.

 

They parted abruptly when he entered but there was no denying what they had been doing milliseconds before he walked through that door. “Excuse me.” He stumbled

 

“Agent Mulder!?” Michael was wiping her lipstick from his lips as he spoke.

 

The woman was wearing an attractive deep blue suit. She smoothed out imaginary creases in the tight pencil skirt and adjusted the short jacket nervously across her chest. She couldn’t look Mulder in the eye, clearly embarrassed at being caught making out with the boss in his office.

 

“Jesus Christ” Mulder couldn’t hide his disgust.

 

Michael’s initial embarrassment quickly disappeared, after all how was it any of Mulder’s business what, or who he did in his office. He brushed her arm with his hand and stepped into her, clearly un-phased by Mulder watching. “Tania.”

 

Mulder remembered that name from the note taped to his fridge the first time he had been invited into the Thompsons home. Tania had been leaving messages to call her. It wasn’t Katherine’s hand writing it must have been the maid taking the message. How sweet, one mistress to the other. How many did he have!?

 

Mulder watched Michael’s arrogance rear its ugly head. He didn’t owe Mulder an explanation. With little more than a glance in his direction he told him as much. His personal life was nobody’s business but his. He cupped Tania’s cheek in his hand and brushed her bottom lip with his thumb. Mulder had just done the same to his wife so he couldn’t really judge him could he? Too late he was judging him, she deserved better than this.

 

“I’ll see you tonight.” He whispered at her.

 

She smiled nervously at him and then Mulder as she passed him and walked out of the door behind him.

 

“Agent Mulder thanks for coming back to meet with me.” He was far too comfortable with this situation, like this was normal behaviour for men like them in these positions. He unbuttoned his jacket and took his seat behind the big desk, gesturing for Mulder to take the seat opposite him. “Please take a seat.”

 

“How has your morning been?”

 

Was this guy serious? “Ah fine.”

 

“Good, good.”

 

Mulder found it somewhat comforting that he looked at least a little nervous. He was looking everywhere except directly at him. He was uncomfortable; he didn’t know how to say what he needed to say. Mulder broadened his shoulders liking that he finally felt like he held an upper hand in this man’s presence. “I’m going to cut to the chase Agent Mulder. One of my colleagues is hiding something and it is all to do with this case that you have been investigating.”

 

Mulder folded his hands in his lap. He wanted to hear this whole story from the man himself before he commented properly.

 

“This colleague, Lucien Jones, has been a dear friend of mine for a long time. He’s a good doctor and a director of one of my other hospitals.”

 

Mulder nodded.

 

“He also gave me the wrong patient’s notes to give to you.” Michael paused to gauge Mulders reaction to that. His gaze narrowed suspiciously wondering if he had already figured that out. Mulder played his best poker face, not willing to give anything away. “The patient you are investigating is no longer in this hospital. Now I’m not willing to accept he was abducted by aliens.” He actually managed to say that with a straight face but his hand rose up to Mulder as if he expected Mulder to argue that exact point. “But this patient has gone missing from this hospital and I want to know where he went and more importantly I want to know why my good friend lied to me about it.”

 

Mulder swallowed nervously. This was absolutely the last thing he expected Michael to tell him. This guy was as slippery as this conversation and Mulder wasn’t grasping either of them. Michael hadn’t offered even a millisecond of genuine conversation since they had met, which meant this one was unlikely to be what it seemed. “I’ve already sent my report to my superiors Dr Thompson.” He lied. “And I’m booked on an early evening flight to Washington.” He sensed Michael knew that he was well aware he had been given false documents but if he was willing to be so honest about that why then was he not concerned Mulder would find out about the insurance scam he was running. He knew when he was being played. Being played by Scully’s husband made this whole thing even harder to stomach.

 

Michael stood from his desk and circled it so he could sit casually in front of him. “I’ve been in touch with your superiors and was surprised to find out that there is no official case-file on Greg Hosking.”

 

“I can assure you that you have been misinformed. The division I work for is outside of the mainstream FBI so perhaps…..”

 

“I spoke to Deputy Director Kersh directly.” Mulder decided silence was the safest option for him right now. “Kersh told me you work for the X-Files division, which I’m not going to lie, can’t believe my tax dollars pay for such a thing.” Mulder gripped the leather of his nice arm chair “Kersh knew my father and when I explained to him my concerns he was more than happy for you to stay on and help me.”

 

“Kersh is not my direct superior” Mulder argued hoping the sweat wasn’t beginning to show through his shirt. Michael was looking down upon him and any sense of having the upper hand was completely lost. This cat had him in a corner and wasn’t going to stop batting him around the floor until he was. Well what he wanted to achieve was still a mystery.

 

Michael actually curved his mouth into an evil smile. “You mean AD Skinner? He called me after I spoke to Kersh. He has given official permission for you to open a case on Gregory Hosking. Of course you can verify.” Mulder could feel his phone vibrating in his pocket as he spoke. There was no way Michael couldn’t see Mulder’s breathing become harsher, he had to stop himself from clenching his fists. Michael of course looked very pleased with himself. “I’d really appreciate your help and of course you are more than welcome to stay with Katherine and I. She doesn’t have many friends and doesn’t get to see her family often. I’m sure she would love having you around to catch up on old times.” He folded his arms and legs and leant comfortably against the desk. “Speaking of which, If your work is in the field of paranormal phenomenon how on earth could Katherine of been any help to you? She’s the most scientific, sceptical person I know.”

 

Mulder decided to mirror his casualness and released the death grip he had on the chair to sit comfortably back and fold his own arms and legs. “If I told you I’d have to kill you.” Michael laughed and Mulder smiled back at him, if only he was kidding. How interesting he wanted him to continue to stay with them. Katherine had certainly made it clear she didn’t want him around so was this some sick way of torturing the both of them at the same time. The only pleasure Mulder took from that was knowing that he underestimated and was clearly oblivious to the true nature of their relationship. Or was he? In the interests of keeping friends close and enemies closer he decided to not give him the satisfaction of protesting. After all he had more than enough to get Katherine away from him and away from here. He had every intention on finding out what happened to Greg Hosking anyway, why not do it on Michael Thompson’s dollar. He didn’t want to spend another night or awkward morning in that house though. Seeing them play happy families was more than he could bear. “I think I’ll get a hotel, I’ll get much more work done there. You don’t seem to notice but your wife is quite a distraction.”

 

Michael’s face twitched a little and then he laughed like Mulder was joking. Like there was no possible way that his darling Katherine would dare look at another man. He truly believed that to be the case.

 

“Will that be all then?” Mulder said.

 

He re-buttoned his Jacket. “Thank you Agent Mulder.” A firm hand shake was exchanged. “Keep me updated and don’t forget we are hosting a party tomorrow night. Lucien and the other directors and associates of mine will be there, it’d be good to see you there too.”

 

 

 

 

When Mulder climbed into the elevator he pulled out his cell phone.

 

Michael waited until Mulder closed the door to his office and pulled out his cell phone.

 

Malcom answered on the sixth ring “Malcom its Mulder.”

 

Lucien answered on the first “Luc its Michael.”

 

“Mulder,” Malcom sang down the phone. “To what do I owe the pleasure of a phone call from the FBI’s favourite FBI agent?”

 

“Michael!” Lucien sang down the phone. “You up for a drink at the conference centre tonight?”

 

“Have you heard about this case Malcom?” a long exasperated sigh came down the receiver of Mulders phone.

 

“Have you heard the FBI has officially opened a ‘missing persons case’ on Greg Hosking Lucien?” A long sigh of dread drummed in Michael’s ear.

 

“I have and thank you so much. Alien abduction again, really Mulder? Don’t you ever tire of torturing me like this?”

 

“Seriously Mikey do you ever tire of torturing me like this!?”

 

“I’m actually busy working on something legitimate and a whole lot more interesting than you so I’m not going to jump on a plane right now. I’m sure you can handle yourself for a few days. Email me the hotel details and I’ll meet you there for breakfast three days from now. You can bring me up to speed then.”

 

“I’m too busy for this crap Michael! What the hell are you playing at? I’m getting on a plane right now. I’ll see you in an hour.”

 

“You don’t have to come” said Mulder.

 

“You don’t have to come” said Michael.

 

“Just make sure there are pancakes when I get there and you better be sober Mulder!”

 

“Just make sure there are shots lined up when I get there!”

 

 

 

 

Mulder took the elevator straight to the top floor and when he got there he still had to climb three sets of stairs. The stairwell was hot, so hot he had to take his jacket off and roll his shirt sleeves up. She was right where she said she would be, standing on that edge, delicately drawing on that nasty cigarette. When she spotted him she squashed it beneath the toe of her shoe and puffed the smoke out of the corner of her mouth. For the first time since he found her she legitimately looked excited to see him. “You’re here.”

 

“You noticed”

 

“You were with Michael a long time?” She queried.

 

“Was I? For someone who doesn’t want me around you seem awfully worried I was away for so long.”

 

“Mulder you are not going to believe what I found.”

 

“Oh I love it when you say that Scu…” They had fallen into a familiar conversation, his slip was easy to make and hard to pick back up “Katherine.”

 

She hesitated a moment, it seemed she enjoyed his stumble too. “I found Mr Hosking’s labs, films and medical notes it wasn’t hard at all actually. It seemed they only doctored your copies. They really didn’t count on you checking.”

 

“Why wouldn’t they, how would I check? Surely you don’t think Michael would think you would do it for me. The man thinks you are some nun who hides in a lab all day.” She licked her bottom lip, a well-practiced nervous twitch he knew well. “He actually laughed when there was even an implication you were a field agent. I have to hand it to you, you’re a better actor than me.”

 

“It kept us alive didn’t it? And anyway maybe I became a nun in a lab Mulder. A lot of time has passed since we knew each other that well.” The wind blew her hair across her face amplifying the seriousness of her words.

 

“I don’t think much has changed at all.” He challenged.

 

“Do you want to know what I found?”

 

“Always.”

 

“Hosking was sober. There were no illegal or illicit substances on his toxicology report. Only his psychiatric medication was detected. There were substantial contusions and abrasions over his body. Most interesting were the holes running down either side of his cheeks.”

 

Mulder looked a little squeamish.

 

“His wrists were broken and so were his ribs, it appears from some kind of restraint. I can see why his physicians thought he was in a car wreck but Mulder I think that he was…”

 

“Experimented on.” He finished.

 

She nodded. At least they still had the ability to finish each other’s morbid sentences. “There’s more.” He settled a little closer to her, like someone might be listening into this conversation. “They didn’t detect it but then again they weren’t looking to find it.”

 

“The chip? Did he have one?”

 

“No. I couldn’t see any implants but that doesn’t mean they aren’t there. I found something much more interesting than a chip though. I found the virus!”

 

“What? What virus?”

 

“Not ‘what virus’ Mulder ‘the virus’.”

 

“What does that mean?”

 

She tucked a strand of hair that had been caught on her mouth behind her ear. “That it was no coincidence he was here and that he led you to me.” He swallowed nervously. “There’s more.”

 

How could there possibly be more than that? His Scully was just telling him she believed an alien virus intent on causing a plague that would wipe out man kind and replace it with some kind of super soldier was just days ago sitting inside this hospital. “What? What happened to him?”

 

“I don’t know but that day there was a chunk of human tissue sent to the lab for identification. It was found in the bottom of the shower in the patient bathroom of the ICU where Mr Hosking was supposedly on life support. I had my technician run the DNA; I didn’t even bother to follow it up myself.”

 

“Was it him?”

 

She nodded “Yes.”

 

“So what - the virus liquefied him in the shower?”

 

“I don’t know.”

 

“Does that mean it didn’t work, that he just died?” Mulder said desperately.

 

“I don’t know.”

 

He brushed a brisk hand through his hair. “I may need one of those cigarettes.”

 

“Look we know this virus has a vaccine, you’ve seen it. We don’t actually know who put this guy here, whose test subject he actually was.”

 

“So what do we do?”

 

“I think if we try to find the vaccine we only risk exposing ourselves further. In my earlier testing I discovered that the virus in its primitive stages was killed easily by using conventional anti-viral medications. I think what we need to focus on here is what to do if we can’t get to the virus before it has time to..”

 

“Gestate.”

 

“Evolve.” He smiled at her attempt to bring him back down to earth. “I still think it is better if we separate. Go back to Washington and see what you can find out on that end.”

 

“I can’t”

 

“What? Why”

 

“Your husband has opened an official ‘missing persons’ investigation for Mr Hosking and guess who got the case.”

 

She folded her arms over her chest, clearly disturbed by this information. “He did what?”

 

“I have direct orders from Deputy Director Kersh and Assistant Director Skinner to find out what happened to him.”

 

“Since when do you do what you’re told?”

 

“Since it means I get to stay here with you.” He stepped into her causing her chin to tilt so she could maintain eye contact. He brushed another strand of wayward hair off her eyelids and tucked it neatly behind her ear.

 

She placed her hand lightly over the back of his and then pushed it slowly off of her face. She clearly didn’t trust him touching her. “Call The Gunmen.”

 

He made a disgusted noise in the back of his throat. “I don’t want to talk to them.”

 

“Yes you do. They sent you here and we need to know where their information came from. They may be our only hope at discovering how to beat this.”

 

He actually pouted, he wasn’t finished being angry with them yet. She reached to where his hand dangled at his side and took it into hers. “If Michael got Kersh and Skinner to back this investigation and keep you here and Lucien falsified documents The Gunmen maybe the only allies we have left.”

 

He looked down at their tangled fingers, how could he refuse her when she did that? “Ok I’ll call them. There’s just one other person we need to worry about.”

 

“Who?”

 

“Malcom, my partner.”

 

“Is he coming today?”

 

“No he’s given me three days of breathing room.”

 

“Call the three stooges Mulder.” She dropped his hand and headed for the door. He noticed she threw the entire packet off cigarettes in the trash as she passed it.

 

 

 

Katherine swirled the final drop of red wine around the bottom of her long stemmed crystal glass and then drained it with a single swallow. Her eyes closed and she allowed the warmth of the alcohol to fill every red blood cell in her body. It was most definitely time for bed. She snapped closed the lap top sitting on the coffee table in front of her and reached for the remote to kill the stereo. Nine out of ten nights she slipped between her silk sheets alone. He always got in by midnight, her husband was many things - predictable was probably the one she depended on the most. Usually she turned out her light rolled over and went to sleep without giving it a second thought. Tonight she hesitated, looking over at his pillow sadly. She thought she knew all of his dirty secrets. This insurance thing Mulder mentioned had thrown her for six. Her husband, their marriage was probably the furthest from perfect you could get, you could barely class it as functional but once upon a time things were a lot different. Once upon a time she cared deeply for him and relied on his friendship above all else. He used to be one of the good guys and as she rubbed her hand along the empty space next to her she wondered if it was her fault that he was no longer the man he was when they first met. She certainly was not the woman he married. Especially now Mulder was here. The future she feared was knocking at her door and she thought she had more time to prepare. Usually at times like these she turned to her god. She wanted to pray but wondered how her god could hear through all the noise and fog. No she wasn’t going to pray, what would she pray for anyway? ‘Dear God please get my husband out of her bed and keep Mulder out of mine.’ These thoughts were not going to help her sleep, so she rolled over and flicked the switch of her bedside lamp. It had been out barely a second when the phone on her draws rang loudly. She looked over at the glowing light of Michael’s alarm clock. It was 11.30, who would ring her now? Hesitantly she pulled the phone off its receiver. “Hello?”

 

“Hey, it’s me.”

 

“Mulder? What happened, what’s wrong, where are you?” She sat up too quickly and the thump of the red wine hit her in the temples.

 

“Relax nothing’s wrong. I’m in my car.”

 

She lay back down on her pillow and tucked the phone tightly to her ear. “Hey G woman.” An old friend spoke in stereo through the phone.

 

“Is that Frohike?”

 

“I hear we have to call you Katherine now.”

 

“Langley?”

 

“Hello Dr Thompson.”

 

“Byers, What……..?” She couldn’t help but smile. It felt like back up had finally arrived. The most unique back up you could ever imagine but back up none the less. “Where are you guys?”

 

“Driving around this fine city.” Mulder said. He had the phone on speaker so the whole car could be involved in the conversation. “We were heading to McDonalds but we had to pull over so Langley could pee.”

 

She laughed picturing the four of them jammed in a rental car fighting over the stereo and who was going to ride shot gun.

 

“Hey don’t tell her that man!” Langley whined in the back ground.

 

“It’s good to hear your voices.” She choked back her words.

 

“Nice to know someone is happy to see us” said Frohike. “Your old partner here isn’t quite so excited about getting the band back together.”

 

“According to google maps there’s a Pizza Hut four blocks from here.” Byers was being methodical and practical.

 

“You can’t trust google maps Byers, you know google use Russian satellites to navigate that application. For all you know some Russian militant is watching you from his nuclear war head.” Said Langley

 

“I don’t think the Russians care about what we have for dinner Langley” Byers replied.

 

“Guys, guys I don’t think Katherine does either.” Mulder broke it up before it got ugly.

 

“Sorry Katherine.”

 

“Yes. Sorry Dr Thompson.”

 

“Sorry Katherine. Are you hungry? We could drop by and bring you a big mac.” Frohike tried not to sound desperate to see her.

 

Katherine was too busy laughing to respond. The fate of man-kind sat in a government rental car, driving around in circles looking for food that was likely going to kill them before the aliens had a chance. Mulder smiled for the first time in days. It had been years since he heard her laugh and it was just as amazing as he remembered.

 

“What have you guys been doing?” she managed to ask.

 

Mulders smile faded he knew he was about to kill that beautiful noise. Gaining as much privacy as he could he turned her off speaker phone and pulled the phone from the cradle where it sat attached to the dash. “We have been tailing Michael and Lucien Jones.”

 

She was quiet for a little while. “I see.”

 

“I followed him to a place called the conference centre.”

 

“I know the place”

 

“And then to a residence on Summer St.”

 

She exhaled down the phone. “To Tania’s house.” He didn’t answer her. “Tania has been his mistress for two years Mulder; you’re not protecting me from anything. I’m not in the FBI anymore but I can still conduct a thorough investigation. It was essential in my current situation”

 

He wanted to challenge her on the insurance scam she clearly knew nothing about but this was not the right time or place to start that conversation.

 

“He’ll be home by midnight. He always is. Put The Gunmen back on Mulder, I don’t want them to hear about all of this.”

 

He clamped the phone back to its holder and hit the speaker key again.

 

“Hey Katherine, I can’t believe you’re married.” Frohike said pained. “Tell me it was just a marriage of convenience.”

 

“Melvin!” Mulder cautioned.

 

“Ha” said Scully. “You know I only have eyes for you Melvin Frohike.”

 

The smile that lit up that man’s face could not be smacked off if they tried.

 

“You boys got on a plane? I’m surprised.”

 

Byers moved closer to the speaker “When Agent Mulder called us and told us what happened we knew we needed to see you both in person. We have important information to share with you.” He hesitated “Katherine, perhaps you could set up a meeting with us soon, somewhere safe and secure.”

 

“Of course” She said.

 

“Mulder you’re driving away from the CBD, There’s no restaurants in this direction.” Langley protested.

 

“Can you think of anything else but your stomach Langley” Said Frohike.

 

“If you two can’t behave I swear I will turn this car around and no one will get ice cream.” Mulder joked and was rewarded with a hearty laugh from down the phone again.

 

“Speaking of Ice Cream, will you take us back to the circus Dad?” Langley joked. “Hey Katherine have you had the pleasure of meeting Agent Malcom yet?”

 

“No I haven’t but I believe I will in the next few days.”

 

“Oh man did you hear about the first case they ever did together?” Langley continued.

 

“She doesn’t want to…” Mulder tried.

 

“Oh god, yes tell her Langley” Said Frohike.

 

“Ok so Malcom he’s a bit of twat right? Well six months after you left, our Friend here was well -have you ever seen a puppy in the rain? Well imagine ten puppies in the rain, with kittens tucked under them and little baby ducks tucked under the little baby kittens in the rain.”

 

“Come on Langley. Shut up.” Said Mulder

 

“Sorry, you get the picture though right?” Katherine stayed quiet. Of course she could picture Mulder when she left. She went through it too. “Anyway there was this circus in town and Byers over here thought it would be a great idea to take Mulder along. Especially since this guy, this star hypnotist was going to be there and he was well known for making the audience do the most craziest of things.”

 

“He made a senator believe he was a character in a Shakespearian play. Very entertaining” said Byers.

 

“Of course Mulder didn’t want to go.” Said Langley

 

“Yeah he was far too busy warming bar stools.” Frohike added.

 

“Seriously guys I will hang up this phone.” Mulder said.

 

“Ok Ok. So we faked an X-File. I think it was something about a clown conspiracy?”

 

“You told me the hypnotist was getting government secrets out of his audience members.” Mulder said, sounding very incredulous.

 

“Did we?” Said Frohike “Wow in hindsight, under the circumstances that was really mean. Sorry dude.”

 

“Maybe you should get back to your story Langley” Byers cautioned.

 

“So we met Agent Malcom for the first time. He’s pretty much a carbon copy of Mulder himself. Maybe a little shorter but same build, same hair, you know what I mean but he has the biggest chip on his shoulder and he absolutely hates The X-Files, he was furious when he got the assignment. I think the FBI put him there as punishment for something.”

 

“No they put him there to punish me” Mulder mumbled.

 

“When we invited Mulder we didn’t know he had a new partner so when he showed up with this guy who looked like he was ready to punch something we knew it was probably a bad idea. Anyway to cut a really long story short the hypnotist did this mind bend on Agent Malcom.”

 

“He really picked the wrong guy to hypnotise that night.” Frohike briefly interrupted

 

“He made Malcom think everyone in the room knew everything about him, that they could all read his mind, which under the circumstances was possibly the worst thing he could have done. He Freaked out!” Langley threw his hands in the air to better illustrate the level of ‘freak out’ Agent Malcom performed that night. “He literally ran out of the room trying to cover his head so ‘the thoughts couldn’t leak out’.”

 

The other two Gunmen in the car started to laugh “It wasn’t funny” Mulder said trying to hide the smirk on his own face.

 

“It was funny.” Langley corrected “But anyway we not only lost Malcom but we lost Mulder as well when he went looking for him.”

 

“Oh my god.” Katherine’s voice filled the car again. “Tell me more.”

 

“Seriously you don’t need to hear this” Mulder hung his head in his hands.

 

Frohike and Langley scrambled to get closer to the phone both eager to tell her the punch line of the story. Langley won. “We found Mulder strapped to one of those giant spinning wheel things, you know the ones that you spin and someone throws knives at them. So Malcom had tapped these things to Mulders ears so he couldn’t hear his thoughts apparently. He tapped it all the way over his ears and over his mouth so he was gagged.” He turned to Mulder who was covering his mouth so he couldn’t be seen laughing at this “What were those things anyway?”

 

“They were juggling sacks.”

 

“Oh my God.” You could hear the joy in Katherine’s tone as she spoke.

 

Langley laughed his way through the rest of the story. The rest of the car held their bellies as they laughed too. Mulder couldn’t hold it in any longer either although he was probably laughing at the sight of his three friends belly laughing at him and not at the memory of almost being fried by his crazy new partner.

 

“Juggling sacks” Langley took a moment to compose himself enough to carry on. “So for some reason Malcom had stripped down to his underwear. He had found a helmet and a cattle prod in one of the stables and was standing there wearing a stars and stripes biker helmet and tiny whiteys, alternating between electrocuting Mulder with the cattle prod and spinning him around on the wheel.”

 

“Oh my god!” Katherine was laughing along with the rest of them now. “How did you get them down?”

 

Byers was the first one to gain enough control to answer her. “We got the hypnotist there to reverse the suggestion.”

 

“If you thought Malcom was furious when we got to the show you should of seen him when the hypnotist woke him up!” Said Langley

 

“And when Mulder puked on his suit!” Frohike half laughed, half spoke.

 

Everyone erupted into a new wave of hearty laughter then, a chorus of five. Everyone had been so distracted by the story no-one realised Mulder had parked the car and they were all sitting on the side of a dark street looking up at a large apartment block. Eventually the laughing died down and everyone wiped the tears from their eyes.

 

“I’m sure you can see why Agent Malcom doesn’t trust us Katherine.” Said Byers

 

Katherine was wiping away her own tears from laughing so hard. “I needed that, thank you for telling me that story guys. Where are you now? It sounds like you have stopped.”

 

Frohike looked out of the window “Yeah Mulder where are we?”

 

“Umm we are just finishing off our little surveillance.”

 

“What privileged princess lives here?” asked Langley joining Frohike to peer out the window.

 

“Mulder are you outside my house?”

 

Like mere cats in a zoo all three Gunmen’s heads snapped in Mulders direction.

 

“Maybe.” He said ignoring them.

 

“You can’t come up here.” She sounded slightly panicked.

 

“We aren’t coming up Katherine. I just wanted” …why did he come here? “Come to the window.” Mulder said it without actually meaning too.

 

“I’m not coming to the window. I’m not wearing any…” She looked down. She had jumped from the shower into her robe and hadn’t bothered to put any pyjamas on when she slid into bed. She suddenly felt very naked, like they could see her through her window.

 

She didn’t have to finish her sentence everyone knew what she meant. Frohike gulped and retreated in his seat. The other two followed suit they were staring at Mulder who was starring, unblinking at the phone on the dash. They were no longer present to him in the car. “Can I come up?” Someone had clearly taken over his voice. He had lost control of his own words.

 

“Mulder, No!” She replied. To her he sounded like he was ready to come and break down her door. Juggling the phone between her ear and shoulder, she got up from the bed and grabbed her robe throwing it over her shoulders and tying it securely at the waist. “I’m coming to the window.”

 

All three Meer cats’ faces smooched up against a car window. A light came on behind one of the curtains in the block of windows and decks, the blinds shuffled and then pulled aside and then there she was. Just a silhouette but they could see clearly a slender woman in a long robe, holding a phone up to her ear. She lifted the other hand holding the curtain and waved “Hi Guys” they heard her voice through the phone of course but each waved back like she was calling to them from the window.

 

Katherine looked down at three faces peering through the windows at her. Frohike’s nose was actually squashed up against the glass, making him look even more attractive. She huffed at how silly they looked and yet how happy she was to see them. Her attention was drawn to Mulder who wasn’t looking up at her. His head was hung, fixed at his feet. She suddenly thought maybe she should invite him up, just for a minute. After all she wanted to talk to him just as much as he wanted to talk to her. She had almost convinced herself to say it out loud when familiar headlights distracted her. “That’s Michael’s car.” She snapped the curtain closed. “I’ve got to go guys, I’ll talk to you in the morning” and with that she hung up.

 

Mulder watched the car pass them and then turn into the buildings car garage. Without speaking he turned the keys in the ignition and put his foot down hard on the gas. The trip back to the hotel was tense and erratic. He needed to be alone, he needed to be alone and drunk. So he pulled the car up right in front of his hotel room and threw the key card into Byers lap. “Take my room.”

 

“Where are you going?”

 

“Just get out of the car!”

 

‘Click, click, click’ went the three door handles in turn as each Gunmen grabbed for the nearest exit and stumbled out into the low light car park. As soon as the last door was shut the engine revved again and Mulder’s rental speed out of that car park in a cloud of smoke. The three of them stood there outside on the stoop of door number 51 at the Paradise Inn, all looking like their date had just run away without kissing them goodnight. “He has our bag” said Byers.

 

“Do you think he’s coming back?” Langley asked the others.

 

“Nope” Said Frohike turning to the door “Open the door Byers.”

 

Byers turned around and placed the key card through the little slot. The lock obliged and opened to a one bedroom, one couch suite. They stood bunched awkwardly on the threshold, carefully surveying the room and doing the sleeping calculations in their heads. “I call sleeping on the couch.” Langley yelled, pushing his way through to stake his claim. Byers and Frohike starred nervously at the double bed and then slowly back at each other.

 

 

 

This was a nice bar, much nicer than Mulder’s usual watering hall but not as nice as the conference room. It fit the bill though. The lighting was low the music was slow and the bartender didn’t look him in the eye as he poured him another. He was drunk actually he was worse than drunk because he currently didn’t care about anything or anyone. The only thing he cared about was being numb, hoping to slip into a coma under the bar where he couldn’t feel anything anymore. It was probably lucky this bar sat at the bottom of a fancy hotel. He barely noticed the stool next to him became occupied until a soft female voice said “Hey”. He smiled obligatory and emptied his vessel. He didn’t even need to ask this time. The chubby bar tender just grabbed the bottle and filled it straight back up. He smiled up at him too. The female voice cleared her throat “Hey” she spoke a little louder.

 

“Hi.” He tried crunching a piece of ice between his back teeth and turning to get a closer look at the person behind this soft female voice. The voice was soothing. The vessel that held the sound was satisfying. Short red hair tucked neatly behind her ear, watermelon lips on a duchess powdered face. Her dress was long, black and strapless and he found himself mesmerised by her fine collar bones and the way the shadows flickered over her bare skin under the soft bar light. She was distracting and his crunching was momentarily interrupted so he could have a more thorough look. He was too drunk to hide his oogling and she didn’t seem to mind.

 

“I’m Rachel.” Her fine fingered hand shot out in his direction.

 

The last of the ice was swallowed before he choked on it and he found himself taking that hand in his. She was attractive, she smelled amazing and if he squinted just a little she looked very familiar. The testosterone and alcohol started to take over the main components of his bloodstream and the single drunk man in him took notice. “I’m Mulder.”

 

She smiled shyly but didn’t release his hand. “Mulder?”

 

“Yeah but my friends call me drunk.” He joked, unbelieving he still knew how to flirt, unbelieving he was flirting at all.

 

She slipped her hand sensually out of his and giggled. Apparently she knew how to flirt well. He smiled at her laugh, really enjoying hearing it and seeing it. “Mulder.” She said confidently “What are you doing in here?”

 

He inhaled and exhaled through his nose in contemplation. “Drinking.” He tipped his glass.

 

“I noticed. I was sitting over there watching and thinking I wonder if his day was as bad as mine.”

 

He put the glass down on the coaster without taking another sip “Most likely worse.”

 

“Oh really, my day was pretty bad.”

 

“Ok I’m up for a challenge.” He swivelled in his stool so he could face her. “Tell me.”

 

“Will you buy me a drink first?” she licked her bottom lip and he couldn’t help it, he squinted just enough to blur her image and watch her tongue slide delicately over her lip. He hesitated for only a moment and then turned to his friend the bar man. He had obviously been listening into the conversation and had been in this situation before, he had pre-empted Mulder purchasing her a drink and was already pouring her beverage of choice. “Thank you.” She said taking it from him and taking a generous sip. “I’m here at a conference. I don’t suppose you know anything about perinatal surgery?”

 

He couldn’t believe it. If this was some weird test he was most definitely on his way to failing badly. “You’re a Doctor?”

 

“A fetal surgeon yes but I have spent the last year perfecting a surgical technique that enables us to conduct major cardiac surgery microscopically when it has only ever been previously done as an open surgical procedure. It took me three years and they pulled my funding twice but finally I’m ready to present it to my colleagues. This conference was a huge opportunity to get my technique recognised and perhaps start using it in many other surgeries as well.”

 

Mulder nodded taking a deep sip of his own glass. He was actually interested in what she had to say.

 

“So tomorrow I am due to give the biggest presentation of my life and today.” She paused to contemplate her glass and took another sip to power her punch line. “And today I wandered passed a wedding on another floor and found my ex-husband and ex research partner under the congratulations banner.”

 

“Ouch.”

 

“Yeah.” She drained her glass and signalled to the bartender for another. “I mean I knew they were together but …”

 

“That is a bad day.” He finished his own glass but halted the bar tender before he could refill it. Apparently he had reached his limit.

 

“So tell me, can you top that?” she settled herself a little closer to him, spinning her stool so her hips were level with his and her bare shoulder sat at his chin.

 

He hesitated for a moment and then looked up to see that, yip, she had beautiful blue eyes too. His voice lowered just a little. “I found someone I’ve been looking for for six and a half years.”

 

“Someone?” She looked down at his lips then back up at his eyes “A woman?” he nodded slightly ‘yes’. “And where is she now?”

 

“Likely in bed.” Her eyebrows raised up her forehead “With her husband.” He finished.

 

“Ouch.”

 

He closed his eyes and the alcohol tampered with his equilibrium making him rock slightly back and forward.

 

“Are you staying here?”

 

He rubbed his hands over his face. “No, god I don’t know what I’m doing.”

 

“I have a room here.”

 

His hands left his face and his eyes stayed a little blurry from being pressed against. She looked very inviting, she was literally inviting him and he really wanted to pretend that he could forget what he needed to to play pretend with her. “I..”

 

“I really need to clear my head, I think you do to.” She leaned her mouth right up to his. So close he could smell the wine blow over her lipstick.

 

Her red hair had slipped from her ear and his hand of its own accord tucked it neatly back in place. He held the end of the strand a little longer than he should of as if contemplating. She was breathing quickly, he could tell how much she wanted him and he convinced himself he wanted her too. “Lead the way.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Room number 51 at The Paradise Inn was now a hive of activity, a temporary Lone Gunmen headquarters. Without their bags and a change of clothes the smell inside the small hotel room was starting to resemble the inside of a teenage boys’ locker room. The empty pizza boxes gave a slightly Italian tone to the overall aroma of the place. Langley had located a laptop from a source downtown that he wasn’t prepared to disclose to the others. He was banging away in a corner at the small laptop looking for only he knew what. Byers was pacing and Frohike was sitting propped against the headboard of the small double bed, cross legged, flicking through the 100 available channels on the small TV. “Frohike can you turn that off” Langley barked from his corner of the new bat cave. He pointed to the bright laptop screen “I’m trying to work here.”

 

“What are you trying to find, Langley? You think Mulder’s gonna jump on line all of a sudden or Katherine will somehow find us down here?”

 

“Where is he?” Byers paused in his pacing to voice his frustration again.

 

Frohike rolled his eyes but didn’t stop pressing the up arrow key on the remote. “As I said, the last ten times you asked that, Byers. We don’t know!”

 

“He’s been gone all night and day. Maybe we shouldn’t have told him about Greg Hosking yet? We should have waited until we had Katherine and him in the same room. She would have at least kept him more grounded. He could be anywhere, doing anything, with that information under his belt.” Byers chewed the end of his thumb nail and then continued trudging a hole in the carpet that surrounded the bed.

 

“Gregory Hosking is a super soldier. He can’t be killed. Mulder wouldn’t confront him alone?” Langley said without taking his eyes off the computer. He was met with silence from his colleagues and could feel their heavy gaze of disbelief on his back. He turned to face them, “Ok, maybe he would, but we didn’t tell him where he is.” His hands found their busy tone again along the keyboard.

 

Byers tapped his finger on his chin like an idea suddenly came to him. “We have to go to Katherine.”

 

Langley punched the space bar a little too hard and Frohike threw the remote. “That is a bad idea!” Langley almost screamed.

 

Just as world war three was about to break out, Mulder burst through the door. “Jesus guys, open a window or something.”

 

“Mulder! Where have you been?” Byers cried and frohike and Langley joined him at his side, like angry parents expecting a reply. Mulder walked straight through the room making a bee line for the bathroom. The three Gunmen followed closely. He stopped them by slamming the door in their faces. They heard the shower turn on behind it and passed a confused look amongst them. “Mulder?” Byers knocked tentatively. The rings of the shower curtain jingled along the pole behind the door. Mulder had obviously just climbed in the shower and wasn’t interested in answering them. They seemed to simultaneously remember their bags were sitting in his trunk and raced out to the car to retrieve them and look for clues as to where he may have been all night and day. Their bags and laptops had survived wherever they had been. In fact, they looked as though they had hardly moved.

 

“He can’t have gone far” Langley observed. “The car is still clean.”

 

“That probably means he didn’t eat or sleep in here” Said Byers.

 

“There’s a receipt in here.” Frohike called from hunting around the front seat “It’s from a hotel but it appears the charges are only from the bar. He ordered his scotch of choice but the final two transactions are white wine.” They all took a moment to do the math in their heads. “Do you think he stayed with someone there?”

 

Byers straightened himself up looking embarrassed “That’s none of our business. What else is on the front seat, Melvin?”

 

“Just his laptop and a few medical documents.” He was busy flicking through the papers inside the laptop case when Mulder interrupted.

 

“What are you doing?” He said standing in the hotel doorway wearing nothing but a towel.

 

Each Gunman jumped again. Langley banged his head on the car’s roof as he tried to make an inconspicuous exit. “We were worried, Mulder.” He rubbed the egg forming on the back of his noggin. “Where the hell have you been?”

 

Mulder went back inside and the Gunmen followed closing the door behind him. He went straight to the hotel closet and his bag pulling out a hanger with a dinner suit on it. Discreetly he dressed, first putting on his underwear and pants under the towel, letting it drop as he did up the fly. A tight white singlet was pulled on next followed by a crisp white shirt. “I didn’t go near Hosking” He said to his buttons as he slipped them through their holes.

 

Langley eyed the other two smugly. “I told you so.” He mouthed.

 

Mulder was now watching himself in the mirror so he could tie his tie. It was one of his nicest; plain and navy blue. “What’s the point, I need to figure out a way to kill him first but I was ordered to find him and explain his disappearance from the hospital. Now I don’t think Kersh or even Skinner is ready for a report that says we have confirmation that a Super soldier, a superior half alien half human being is now walking this planet.” He paused before he tightened the tie to gauge their reaction. “Are they?”

 

They each shook their heads.

 

“So I did what I could and I’ve compiled a report that finds Michael Thompson and his five associates guilty of fraud. They have swindled 4.6 million dollars of insurance money out of the American people and I plan on bringing them to justice.” The knot of the tie climbed briskly to his chin. He tucked the collar neatly over top of it and reached for his jacket.

 

“You’re going to take down Katherine’s husband?” asked Byers. “You think if her husband goes to prison, she might come home?”

 

His jacket hitched at his elbows when he realised his plot was that see through. He didn’t confirm though, just flicked the jacket onto his shoulders and sat on the bed to pull on his socks and shoes. There was an awkward silence then; no one knowing where next to take the conversation.

 

“Are you going somewhere?” Byers found his voice again.

 

“Yeah, the Thompsons invited me to a party at their house.” He stood and returned to the bathroom to adjust his hair and splash on some after shave. The three of them followed and watched him from the bathroom door. The reflection of him looked at them from the mirror and laughed. “I’ll be good, I promise. I don’t intend on handing in the report yet. I have one more piece of evidence to gather.”

 

“What’s that?” Byers was almost afraid to ask.

 

“I need to prove she had nothing to do with it.”

 

“And if you can’t?” Byers challenged watching him splash aftershave on his cheeks.

 

“I will.” He pushed through the middle of them and grabbed his keys and wallet from the small corner table. “Don’t wait up boys.” And with that he was gone again.

 

 

 

 

The party was boring. Michael had kept Mulder in check for the majority of the evening taking him by the arm and introducing him to each and every one of the guests. Once they were introduced, he went into an elaborate breakdown of who they were and what they did for him or his hospital. Then Mulder would explain he worked for the FBI and was conducting an investigation that he was unable to elaborate on. He was interested to see that Tania, Michael’s mistress, was by his side for most of the evening. It turned out she was his PR rep and therefore had a valid excuse for keeping close tabs on him and an easy way to hide the fact that they were secretly sleeping together. Poor Jasmine could tell, however. The innocent waitress/housekeeper who clearly knew she wasn’t the only one who had seen the undercover version of Mr Thompson. Katherine seemed to play the dutiful wife. Walking around schmoozing the guests, actually laughing and smiling as she did. He couldn’t take his eyes off of her. She was stunning in a simple but flattering white A-frame dress. Strapless fitted bodice with a black silk belt that accentuated her small waist and a skirt that sat out like a triangle down to her knees. Her shoes were tall, as usual, and the same colour as her dress. She had a simple diamond necklace circling her perfect neck and the sparkles from the expensive glass seemed to catch the corner of her eyes under her long lashes. Her lipstick was much redder than what she wore during her work day and her hair was loose curls falling down her beautiful, impossibly long back. She stole the room completely. People hung off her words, smiled when she smiled and laughed when she laughed. She had everyone in the room fooled. Everyone that is, except for him. He didn’t get to talk to her properly until the very end of the night. Finally Michael left him to his own devices and went to farewell his guests at the door. They seemed to make an informal line and took the time to shake his hand and say something personal before he kissed their wife or shook their husbands hand and they walked out of his front door. For some reason, Katherine lagged behind. She hung in a corner close to one of the speakers that started a slow melody he couldn’t quite make out until he got a little closer. Elvis Priestly he discovered with tremendous pleasure. ‘Are you lonesome tonight’ ironically. He bent over her bare shoulder “Hi” he whispered. “Are you avoiding me?”

 

She didn’t even startle when his warm, cocktail flavoured breath crossed her shoulder. Slowly, she turned to look up directly at him. Now she was close enough he breathed her in deeply and then snaked his left hand around to her lower back and took her right in his. He pulled her so close their bodies sat flush together. Carefully he began to rock them side to side along with the soulful music that surrounded them. She didn’t seem to mind in fact she seemed completely comfortable to be slow dancing with him in a low light corner of the room with the King singing the story of their moment in time with their moving hips. “I need to tell you something.”

 

She lifted her chin in response. Their eyes were locked and everyone around them disappeared.

 

“I went to a bar last night.”

 

She exhaled slowly but still didn’t speak.

 

“I met a woman.”

 

“Mulder, you don’t owe me an explanation.”

 

“Sssssh listen. She had your hair, your eyes, your skin, your mouth.” He seemed to drag his eyes over her features as he listed them like delicious food items on a menu.

 

She swallowed a nervous mouthful of air; her breathing became a little quicker. The soft tone of his lowered voice was making the tiny hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. Her eyes scanned his and his scanned her until they met again.

 

“And if I closed my eyes just a little bit, I thought I could pretend she was you and that it was you who wanted me just like she did.”

 

“Mulder…..”

 

“I couldn’t do it.” He confessed “I went all the way up to her room. I even managed to remove her dress. I’ve spent years trying to burn the taste of you from my mouth with whatever bottle of booze I could find but it’s never enough and as soon as she kissed me. I couldn’t pretend anymore. ”

 

She tried to hide her relief and shock while simultaneously cursing herself for caring so much. After all, she had spent countless nights closing her eyes and pretending Michael’s mouth was Mulders wherever it happened to be on her body. She had used Science to justify her intimate indiscretion all of these years but resting in his arms like this. Listening to him and thinking over the last few days, she realised that holding her, having her safe and close was more important to him than taking her between the bed sheets. It had been the most important thing to him throughout their entire relationship. No alien alterations could’ve created that. It just was. That was love and with that thought she began to shake. She could feel him circling the snake through her dress on her lower back. He knew her intimately inside and out, he wanted her intimately inside and out and she didn’t know how to process that information.

 

“I have something else to tell you.”

 

His words stilled the lump that was welling up in her throat.

 

“The Gunmen found Gregory Hosking.” He felt her stiffen in his arms and he nodded to confirm. “He’s a super soldier and we have no way of knowing whether he is the only one but this confirms one thing. It has begun.”

 

She was rendered speechless. Fear appeared on every one of her features.

 

“I’m going back to Washington the day after tomorrow. I gave you something and now you have to give me something in return.”

 

“What?”

 

“I need your financial statements. I know you would have separated your finances from him as a safety net and I need to see them.”

 

“But why?”

 

“I’m not going to tell you.” He shuffled her even closer and lowered his voice further. “I can’t stay here anymore. I need to focus on finding a way to kill these things and I can’t do that with you here. If you don’t want me then I won’t stay here and watch you with him. Not when all I can think about is how much I want to touch you.”

 

Michael was almost through his line of guests. Katherine hardly ever stood beside him at this point. She had usually exhausted her efforts of playing nice and retreated to the bathroom to wipe away the mask she liked to hide behind. They were hardly ever intimate these days, the fear of pregnancy made it difficult for her but they were always intimate after these parties. It was one of the few nights they were home together and therefore climbing into bed at the same time. She was usually undressed and waiting for him in bed when he finished saying goodbye to his guests. He was kissing the cheek of someone’s wife when he noticed them over in the corner by one of the big stereo speakers. Her back was to him so he could only see Mulder who was whispering something to her. They were close; too close. The way they were looking at each other was intimate and far too familiar for Michael’s liking. Mulder was drawing a circle on her lower back with his finger. He was circling the tattoo that he thought only he and perhaps a short list of other men had seen. The next guest stepped in front of him and began talking, distracting him from the anger that was boiling up inside of him. Had he been so pre-occupied? Was he so blind he didn’t see that this man and his own wife were clearly more than past work colleagues? He quickly finished his goodbyes and shuffled the lasts of his guests including his mistress out of the door. They were still dancing over in that corner even though the room was now completely empty. It was impossible but he thought they had actually moved closer together. He moved quickly to their side and cleared his throat. “Excuse me?”

 

He was impressed at their ability to break away casually; they were good actors. Too good they had played him for a fool and he was not happy. “Katherine, darling, are you ready for bed?”

 

Katherine looked flushed and like she was on the verge of tears but she managed to hold herself together. She moved away from Mulder and in towards him circling his waist with one of her arms. She looked like his wife. She felt like his wife and yet he felt like, right at this moment, he didn’t actually know her at all. “Of course Michael.” She forced a smile. “I was just telling Agent Mulder he could sleep in our spare room if he wanted to.” Michael looked up at Mulder who appeared to be confused about that statement. “It seems some colleagues of his have taken up his hotel room and he may struggle to find another at this hour.” She didn’t want to let him go just yet. She needed to finish this conversation and she was very fearful if he left now he would get on a plane without saying goodbye.

 

“Of course, Agent Mulder, you know where it is.” Michael said reluctantly.

 

It was Katherine who left first. “Good night, Agent Mulder.” She gave him a mere passing glance like they hadn’t just been exchanging breath and disappeared behind her bedroom door.

 

Michael and Mulder stood awkwardly for a few moments. Michael wanted to punch him but he fought the urge with everything he had within him and followed her into their bedroom. He found her still dressed standing at the foot of their bed looking over it, troubled. Her vulnerability softened him. He felt every bit the shitty husband he was. He took a deep breath and approached her from behind. With caress he pulled aside her hair and peppered her neck with kisses. She breathed out; he felt her close her eyes and the tender muscles below his lips tensed. He gripped her hips and pressed his erection firmly against her back. “Katy” his mouth found her ear. He only called her that when they were like this.

 

“Michael.” She replied

 

“Be careful darling you wouldn’t want to call out the wrong name.”

 

She pushed away and turned briskly to face him. “Pardon?!”

 

He shrugged it off. “Nothing, it doesn’t matter.” He gripped her hips and pulled her neck back into his mouth. “I want to try and make another baby with you.”

 

“Michael….” She began to struggle out of his embrace but he held onto her forcing her neck and shoulder to stay in contact with his lips. “We can’t.”

 

“We can try.” He stopped kissing her to look down directly into her eyes. “Getting pregnant is never the problem we just need to find a way to get it to term. If anyone can do it you can, Katy. You’ve helped so many couples successfully have a child. Why can’t you do it for us?”

 

She pushed off his chest with her hands, releasing herself from his grip “We can’t Michael and even if we tried I couldn’t go through loosing another child of yours. I’ve seen what it does to you. What it has done to our marriage.”

 

He gripped her elbows and shook her as if he could shake her into seeing reason. “I love you Katy, I want us to have a baby. I want a family and to make you happy again. I want to be able to leave all of this to someone when we are gone.”

 

“We can’t, I can’t do it again. You know I know these things Michael and I am telling you without a shadow of doubt in my mind, we cannot have a baby together.”

 

He straightened his posture and stepped closely into her pushing her back against a wall. “Are you sleeping with him?” He spat at her.

 

She looked taken back but was restricted from recoiling by the wall at her back “What?”

 

He spun her and pressed her hard up against the wall with his torso and his fore arm across her shoulder blades, then tore down the zipper of her dress exposing her back and the snake upon it. His hot breath burnt her ear lobe “I was watching you.” He scrapped his nail around the Ouroboros. “He was circling the tattoo on your back which means he’s seen it. Did you screw him here?! In my house! In my bed!?”

 

Her breath was harsh against the wall, her face jammed hard up against it. “Let. Me. Go!”

 

He shook her again “Tell me!”

 

Of all the things Michael had been in the last four and half years she had known him, violent was never one of them. He may have failed at every aspect of his wedding vows but he had never laid a hand on her. The line was blurry but this is where she drew it and without another thought she plunged the heel of her shoe into his big toe and her elbow deep into his rib cage. He fell to the floor instantly, rolling around and groaning in pain. She pulled her dress back up over her exposed breasts and closed the lowered zipper. It took him a moment to catch his breath but when he did he fumbled to standing again, clutching at his bruised ribs. He looked up at her shocked, like he was seeing her truly for the first time. Limping over to a chair in the corner of the room he grabbed a jacket and pulled his arms through the sleeves. She watched him methodically daring him to come and try and fight her again. Instead he reached for the door and slowly pulled it open. He paused for a moment as if he meant to tell her something but without uttering a sound or looking back towards her; he pulled the door to fully open and left.

 

 

 

 

 

Mulder paced the large bedroom he now felt he knew so well. He didn’t really want to be here but realised what she said was true. The Gunmen occupied his room and he didn’t fancy sleeping in his car. He removed his pants and shirt, socks and shoes and sat down on the side of the bed in just his boxer shorts. It was highly unlikely he would fall asleep tonight and he had already planned to leave before anyone else in the house was awake. He reached over to the lamp and switched it off surrounding himself in darkness but didn’t bother to try and lie down. When his bedroom door slipped open he half expected it to be Michael coming to hold a pillow over his face. He looked towards the door in the darkness but his eyes hadn’t adjusted enough for him to see, until she was standing directly in front of him. She stood between his parted knees with her hands dangling loosely at her sides. She was so close his nose fell almost directly between her breasts.

 

It felt like an eternity that she stood there without saying a word and he was happy to let the minutes tick by and wonder what she wanted him to do. She had come to him again and this time there was no gun pointed at him, this was different. He could feel it radiating off her like a light, allowing him to see in the dark. When she spoke, he finally lifted his head to meet her heavy gaze. “I want you to touch me.”

 

He dropped his focus to the knot holding onto her robe and reached up to slowly untie it. The sound of silk running over silk was unnaturally loud as he pulled the tether free. It fell slightly open, like a curtain opened, just a slit to allow the first hint of morning sunshine to fill the room. All he could see was skin; all she was wearing beneath the robe was a simple pair of lace underwear. She asked him to touch her and he intended on taking his time. With an open palm he splayed his fingers over her flat stomach and held it there until the coolness of his hand was replaced with the warmth of her body heat. When he removed it he could see tiny goose bumps rise over her skin. He took each side of the robe and carefully began to pull it open. Her breathing became harsh and fast above him in his ear. Slowly he unwrapped her, watching the two sides slip over the curve of her breasts catching momentarily on her nipples. Her breath hitched as the robe caressed them and then feel open to her shoulders. She felt her knees give a little and placed a hand on his shoulder to try and steady herself. One of his hands found the outside of her thigh and held it. The other brushed finger tips from the bottom of her throat, down her sternum, over her abdominals, bellybutton and then along the waist band of her underwear. His chin tilted to find her head bowed close to his shoulder so their cheeks sat almost close enough to touch. “Mulder” she breathed into his ear. He pointed the index finger of the hand that was running along the stitching of her under wear and traced a line directly through the middle of her pubic bone, along the seam that ran through her centre and directly between her legs. Her knees did buckle this time as a lightning bolt of hot pleasure shot through her entire body. Afraid she would actually fall if she didn’t, she rested her other hand onto his other shoulder. He left his finger sitting still but right in between her thighs and without a conscious thought she shuffled, widening the gap just enough for him to fit two fingers instead of one. Now those two fingers were tracking back along the path the first one had lay. Slowly drawing an imaginary line over her mons venus, like a blade slicing easily through a piece of paper. The feeling cut her just as deep, she clutched his shoulders and her head fell slightly backwards. “Oh Mulder.”

 

His movements stilled momentarily as he allowed her to catch her breath. When her cheek returned to sit beside his, he slipped two fingers over the small waist band and deep inside her underwear. Her mouth opened in a silent cry and fearful she would actually call out, he hushed her with a “ssshhhhh” directly spoken onto her open jaw. Her grip tightened on his shoulder when he deepened the pressure and began a steady stroke. His pace was slow and calculated making her pant against his cheek. Her hips began a steady rock against his hand, she was encouraging him to pick up the tempo as she clearly was climbing that euphoric ladder higher and higher. The way she repeated his name over and over was driving him crazy, she was clearly reminding herself that it was in fact him making her feel this way and he was yet to say a single word. Her arms collapsed around his neck, her cheek was now pressed firmly against his with her mouth open wide. If only she would turn and kiss him. He longed for it but was determined to not be the one to initiate it. He could touch her like this in the most intimate way possible but a kiss would make it real. If she kissed him he would not be able to stop himself, but she needed to be the one to take that step and he was prepared to wait. He’d waited for her before; he would do it over and over again. Right now all he wanted was to make her fly. Determined to see it, he increased the pressure and was rewarded with a soft cry out, “Ssssshhhhh.” For all he knew Michael was sleeping right across the kitchen. She adjusted so their foreheads met and he could watch her face. With the hand holding her thigh he adjusted her hips to alter the angle of his fingers and slipped, just a little, inside of her. Her eyes shot open in response to find him watching her closely. She held his stare as much as she could realising for the first time in a very long time she would not need to close her eyes and picture his face before she let go completely. If only she could kiss him, she fought the need to with every ounce of strength she had. If she kissed him she wouldn’t stop, if she kissed him then nothing and no one could stop her from climbing onto his lap and sinking down onto him so deeply there would be no telling where he ended and she began. Just thinking about it started the first cascade of her orgasm forcing her front teeth to sink into her bottom lip. As if he could tell how close she was, he slowed his strokes and felt the first clench of her pelvic floor muscles “Kath…..” He started to whisper her name.

 

“No!” Her eyes shot open to meet his, it was difficult for her to get the words out. “Please. Aaah. Don’t call me that.”

 

He felt her clench down on his fingers again and he circled the spot carefully increasing the pressure but decreasing the tempo. “Scuuuuullly.” He stretched out her name and it sent her flying over that edge

 

“Ah, Mulder.” She began to tremble

 

“Scuuuulllly.” This time he said it out loud and she began to shake, her body clamped down around him.

 

Stars burst behind her eyes and fire ran red hot through her veins. Every muscle in her body tightened as she called out his name. Her release was more intense and freeing than she expected it to be. For the first time in a very long time if felt like someone finally set her free. In this moment she took back control of her mind and body again. Her knees gave a little as she descended and his hand slipped out of her underwear to grip her other hip and steady her so she wouldn’t fall. When she could, she righted herself and then circled his neck with her arms pulling his head against her chest and his arms around her waist, holding on like she was afraid to let him go. She had to gather her breath to talk. “That night I left; the last thing I said to you.”

 

He held his breath.

 

“I didn’t mean it.” She said to his head and felt him squeeze her a little tighter.

 

For years those final words she had spoken that fateful night had haunted him like a never ending echo through his dreams and finally they were gone. He held her for a few moments knowing that ultimately this was just one step forward in the right direction for them and they had many to go after walking backwards for so many years.

 

Finally she stood, taking his face in her palms so she could look directly down at him. He could see her eyes were wet but holding onto those tears, not willing to let them fall. “If I kiss you, I’m afraid I’ll never stop.” Her final word hitched in her throat.

 

He sat up, straightening out his back so her hands fell away from his face. She wasn’t ready, he realised. She was close but not yet able to walk away from this place, away from him. So taking each side of her robe, he wrapped her back up again. They both watched him tie the bow at her waist until she was standing exactly as she had when she first walked in that room; like they had just rewound the last 15 minutes of their lives.

 

She stiffened suddenly unsure of her feelings and his. Had she pushed him too far? Was this all too late? He said he was leaving; did he do this out of pity? A goodbye just like the one she had given him.

 

“Go back to your husband.” He said to the bow he had just tied and then closed his eyes so he couldn’t watch her walk away from him again.

 

She suddenly felt dirty and extremely exposed. She needed to leave; she needed to be anywhere else but here.

 

Two steps forward. Three steps back…

 

 

 

 

 

How peaceful he could sleep with her here, lying in his arms. She must have snuck back into his bed while he slept. He didn’t bother to ask her why, or what she thought she was doing, he just slung his arm over her waist and fell into the best sleep of his life. They fit perfectly together, yin and yang, her back perfectly against his front. This was exactly how it was supposed to be all along. Mulder heard the snick of the door opening and then felt each heavy footfall as someone slowly approached the bed. Cautiously he opened one eye, catching a glimpse of Michael Thompson through the silky red hair that lay across his face. His eyes were held as wide as they could possibly go, the whites of them almost illuminating his whole face. He was angry, worse than that, he was feral. Scully still lay relaxed in his arms thankfully still fast asleep. Mulder had his panic face set; there was no way to quickly diffuse this without a fight. What he didn’t expect was the gun, he didn’t see it in Michael’s hand but now it was raised and pointed straight at Scully’s forehead. Michael was angry but the hand holding the gun was shaking; he didn’t really want to do this. Mulder started to slowly rise away from her, bringing his hands into a surrender position but Michael’s psychotic stare was fixed permanently on his still sleeping wife. He was breathing hard through his nose; the moist air being pushed and pulled through the narrow passageways was loud inside the dark room. Mulder looked at him and then back at Scully, his heart beating wildly in the pit of his stomach. He wouldn’t do it would he? Mulder tried to speak but his voice had been taken from him, he gripped his throat but nothing would come out. Even if he could speak he didn’t think he would be able to draw Michael’s attention. It was as if he couldn’t see him, he was focused solely on Scully. He wiped his sweaty brow with one shaky hand and then returned it to the trigger and cocked the gun. Mulder sat up quickly now, amazed that she still didn’t wake. He tried to scream this time but still silence plagued him. There was nothing he could do. It all happened so fast. The thunderous sound of the gun going off, the bullet hitting her beautiful head and the splash of the blood that exploded over him.

 

He woke with a start. Kicking himself free of the sheets and blankets strangling him and heightening his nightmare. He wiped frantically at his naked chest that his subconscious had just tricked him into believing was covered in her blood. He looked around the room unable to believe he had fallen asleep in the first place, but knowing that one thing was for sure, he needed to get out of here. He never wanted to see the inside of these four walls again. Quickly he threw on his clothes and tip toed across the kitchen, glancing briefly at the breakfast bar he had shared some truly awful cake with her, just a few nights ago. Then he looked over the lounge rug, where she had pointed a gun at him and threatened to blow his head off. Finally, just before he slipped through the front door, he looked at the dark corner next to the speaker where he held her and Elvis sung them a love song. He wondered what she would see when she looked back like this, the final time she walked out of this door. Then again he hoped she didn’t look back at all. Before he knew it he was hailing down a cab and giving the driver the address back to his hotel. It was almost day break. If the Gunmen were still asleep, they wouldn’t be for long. She promised she would email through her financial details. He would get another hotel room so he didn’t have to bunk with the Gunmen tonight, finish his report and then be on the first plane back to Washington the next day. With Scully’s bank records he would have the final evidence he needed to put all of this behind him and focus on fighting a pending apocalypse. With or without her, although he was still holding onto every shred of hope she would join him in the end. The cab bumped along the road and he held out his hands in front of him, still heavy with holding her shaking against them.

 

The sun was rising as he slipped his key card into the hotel door. Langley’s feet dangled over the end of the couch, his arms set uncomfortably across his chest. Byers and Frohike had built a tower of pillows between them on the bed and were lying ‘top and tail’. They were so far on their sides that any small movement and they would end up hitting the floor. All three snored their own unique chorus. He dropped the key loudly on the table and all three of them jumped up into fight mode. He laughed a short laugh “At ease, Gentlemen.”

 

“Mulder?” Frohike scrambled for his glasses.

 

“Who were you expecting?”

 

Langley punched his cushion that was posing as his pillow for the night and set his head back down. “It’s too early Mulder, just because you never sleep.”

 

“Byers order some coffee; I need all of you sharp. You are going to tell me everything you know about Scully, me and Super Soldiers.”

 

“Are we allowed to call her Scully again?” Asked Frohike.

 

He looked down at his half asleep, half-dressed friend. “Put some pants on Frohike and then you can call her Scully again.” He moved over to the couch and flicked Langley’s legs off so he could sit down next to him.

 

Byers sat on the edge of the bed to face him. “We agreed we would talk about it with Agent Scully present.”

 

“We didn’t agree you told me you would explain when she was here but she isn’t and she isn’t coming here anytime soon. I’m going back to Washington tomorrow. Scully needs to see her own agenda through. I’ve done all I can to convince her to work with us. It’s up to her now and I can’t move forward unless you tell me what the hell is going on.”

 

They passed a cautious look amongst themselves and then Byers picked up the phone “I’ll order the coffee.”

 

“I’m guessing you boys have taken care of the privacy in this room?”

 

“Yeah, I’ve put a scramble programme on my laptop so any bugs in the room will pick up static only. I can’t do anything about visual though.” Langley explained.

 

“Great,” Mulder stood clapping his hands together loudly and not yet fully awake, they all jumped again. “I’m going to take the coldest shower of my life and then we are going to talk and once the manager arrives, I’ll be shifting you all into the next room, so I suggest you boys pack.” Mulder jumped from the couch to the bathroom.

 

Showered, changed and caffeinated they all gathered around a small table now covered in empty cardboard coffee cups and what remained of the ordered pastries. Byers had been delegated to do the talking and Mulder had promised to save his questions until the end. He cleared his throat and took one final sip of his coffee. “Ok. We only know bits and pieces, Mulder which is why we had hoped that Agent Scully would be here to fill in the blanks with you.”

 

Mulder acknowledged his honesty with a nod, “Just tell me what you can, Byers.”

 

Byers took a deep breath. “Every now and then we post a personal ad in the paper. Within the ad are hidden contact details for our informants. This way we can change them regularly to secure our information gathering. Six and a half years ago we got a call from an anonymous informant. “He told us that your life was in danger. He told us about re-colonisation and the project designed to control it within our government.” He dared to meet Mulders eye, feeling every ounce of guilt that he held this information from him for so long. “We tried to track the call but….”

 

“The line was well scrambled, CIA or FBI ‘level’ scrambled” added Langley adjusting his glasses on his nose.

 

“He only contacted us this one time and we cannot confirm this, but much later on we concluded that it could have been Alex Krycek.” Buyers braced himself again for another question but Mulder simply placed a hand over his mouth to cover his troubled expression. “He said that the only thing about the project that was an unknown factor was what would happen if a male and female subject, who had been infected by the virus and altered by the alien technology, were to conceive a child naturally. It was only speculation at that point but he said that if you two were to get together, consummate that relationship, aah that, that, if that union was to produce a child.”

 

“Jesus, Byers this isn’t high school health class, he knows what you are talking about. Spit it out already.” Langley just felt plain awkward.

 

Byers closed his eyes and drew a nervous breath. “That child could be the only naturally conceived super soldier potentially with the ability to lead a race of hybrid super soldiers in a silent war that would end in re-colonisation of the planet.” Byers wiped his brow glad to get that all out.

 

Mulder felt like it was his turn to speak. “Scully told me all of this. Why did you send her away?”

 

They all sat forward to get closer to him.

 

“No no, Mulder we didn’t that was her. See this is why we wanted her here when we explained this all to you. She did all of her own testing, she was the one who confirmed everything. You should of seen her when she found out the results of all of her tests.” Buyers looked genuinely sad.

 

“She was broken, dude.” Langley said.

 

“She was the one who decided to leave and she made us promise never to tell you.” Byers finished.

 

Mulder clenched his fists and his nails bit into the flesh of his palm “why didn’t you come to me!?”

 

“Because the informant told us not to, he said that there were two sides to this; those who would test the subject and those who would see you dead so it could never happen. I think it was clear which side he was on. He said Agent Scully would take the right course of action.”

 

“We didn’t let her go completely without a plan.” Frohike tried to lighten the mood because Mulder had paled considerably. “Agent Scully herself discovered that her new found fertility had a time limit and in six months she will no longer be able to conceive. She was confident that by then you would have forgotten about her, found a wife, had some kids or become head of the FBI or something.”

 

Mulder looked up at him in surprise. “How could she think that?”

 

Byers shrugged “She’s a hard woman to argue with and I think it was hard to hear that everything she felt for you, that you felt for her was generated from that chip sitting in her neck.”

 

“But that’s not true!”

 

“Like I said she’s a hard woman to argue with. She intended on coming back when the seven year deadline was over and in that time away she would concentrate on conducting her own research and finding a way to fight this thing.”

 

Mulder ran his hands down his face and took a moment to take it all in. “You said this was just a ‘theory’, does that mean you could be wrong?”

 

“We don’t know” Said Byers. “At this stage Agent Scully probably knows more than us about that.”

 

Mulder was becoming more and more tense. “Who told you about Hosking abduction?”

 

“It was one of our oldest informants and the same one who found him again but now he has disappeared too.” Said Buyers.

 

“I don’t understand. Why don’t they just take what they need from us and test the theory themselves? They’ve done it before” Mulder asked.

 

“I told you we don’t have all of the answers but we do have a theory.” Said Buyers. “I don’t think either side would risk tampering with the theory for fear of starting a war prematurely.”

 

Mulders head was spinning “Until now?”

 

“Someone finally risked getting you two back together, which means they also risked somebody trying to keep you two apart, permanently.” Said Byers

 

“I’m still alive and Scully is not pregnant. I can guarantee you that one.”

 

“We have another theory.” Byers caught his eye again as he spoke. “Someone is bribing Michael to keep you here, even if he is completely oblivious to the reason why. That’s the only explanation we have as to why he kept you here to investigate the Hosking case.”

 

“So what do we do now?” asked Mulder. The only logical conclusions he could draw involved all the things he didn’t want to admit.

 

“You don’t want to hear this I know, but I think Agent Scully is right. It’s too dangerous for you two to be close. For all we know someone has a sniper sitting on you right now. We need to stick to the original plan. We need to wait six more months and in the mean time she can continue her research in the lab and you can find out how to kill Greg Hosking.” Byers explained.

 

“And leave her here with that ass hole?!!”

 

All three Gunmen passed a look. “She has come this far.” Said Byers tentatively.

 

“And what if he goes to prison?”

 

“Yes, Mulder, what happens to her if Michael goes to prison now?” Byers didn’t intend on him giving a real answer to that question, especially after the story he had just told. He could only try and project to Mulder without words how public that would be for them. How they would dig further and further into Michael Thompson’s professional and personal life and expose it. Perhaps even confiscate all of the research and information in his hospital. “I guess that lies with you.”

 

 

 

 

It’s raining its pouring the old man is snoring; he went to bed and tried to forget that everything he worked for is falling. Mulder hadn’t moved in five hours. As promised, he had acquired the room next door for the Gunmen and reclaimed this one as his own. The storm blew in an hour later and became more and more torrential as the hours passed by. Now thunder and big fat rain drops fell on the roof and lightening intermittently lit his room. He couldn’t run, he couldn’t work, he couldn’t sleep, he couldn’t get on a plane until the following morning so he was just going to lie here and listen to the storm. It fit his inner turmoil well. She wasn’t going to chase him and for now he had to let her go. The big phone on his side bureau rang again. It had been doing that off and on all day but this time it wasn’t going to stop “Yeah.” He answered

 

“Mulder, its Frohike. We have a game of D and D going and were about to order pizza. Do you want in?”

 

“Nah, I’m just watching TV.”

 

“TV? The power has been out for over an hour now?”

 

He looked up at the blank screen “Huh.”

 

“Have you got some candles or anything over there? I think I saw some in the draw over by the wind…”

 

“I’m fine Frohike. I might just turn in.”

 

“It’s 7oclock.”

 

No response from Mulder this time.

 

“Langley is going to go and get the Pizza. It may take a while in the weather but he’ll drop a box off to you when he’s back, ok?”

 

He disconnected the call.

 

He must have fallen asleep because he was dreaming; the storm had entered his subconscious and decided to place him upon a small boat. He was clutching the sides desperately as he went up and down, up and down over the unrelenting waves that wanted to tip him from the boat. He was hanging on for dear life and the wood beneath him creaked and bowed under the raw strength of the ocean. He wasn’t going to tip out of that boat; he would ride this storm until he hit the shore. A sharp knock on the door dragged him from the ocean and back into his stormy reality. The room was dark except for the small candle he had lit next to him. It seemed the thunder and lightning had subsided but the rain was still relentless above him. His rumbling stomach reminded him that he actually hadn’t eaten since the party last night; having foregone the pastries from this morning’s breakfast for black coffee and nervous butterflies. Pizza actually sounded like a great idea. Obviously Langley didn’t want to stand in the rain anymore because he knocked again. “I’m coming Langley he called grabbing his shirt from the floor and pulling it over his arms. He started to button it and pulled the door open. There was no pizza, there was no Langly, just a small figure walking down the gutter and away from him. She was soaked from head to toe. Her long red hair slicked wet down her back. “Scully?” He called stepping out into the weather.

 

She paused for a moment to wrap her arms around herself and then slowly turned to face him.

 

He scanned the carpark unable to see her car. “Scully, you’re freezing; did you walk all of this way?”

 

Her breath was harsh. Rain and steam seemed to bellow out of her mouth as she drew cold air in and out of her lungs. If there were tears on her cheeks he couldn’t tell through the rain, but anger and a multitude of other emotions were written all over her face. He was very wet now, they had been standing there for a long time and she was yet to offer a word. “Scully?” He prompted stepping closer but still afraid to touch her in case he was dreaming still and she was here to tip him out of his little boat.

 

She drew a deep shaky breath and tilted her chin to face him “Tania’s pregnant!”

 

He tried to hide his shock and failed miserably “What?”

 

She swatted a tear from her cheek before words just started falling out of her mouth like she couldn’t stop them. They’d been rolling around in her head as she walked towards him and now she desperately needed them to come out. “We had a fight last night, a big one about having a baby and he, he left.” She stammered. “He obviously went to see her and I was glad I hoped that this time he would finally leave me. I could never leave him. I would lose my lab and my research but if he were to leave me then I could continue my work and be free of him. She so clearly can give him so much more than I ever could anywhere. He deserves to have that with someone; all I have ever offered him is disappointment. But this morning when he came back he told me she was going to have a baby and that it was his. He told me like I didn’t already know they had been together this whole time!” She sniffed and her hands came away from her chest to move through the air and animate her story. “He thinks I am clueless. He actually believes I am the dutiful, oblivious wife his mother was to his father. I just stood there and he thought I was shocked but actually all I felt was relief!” she searched his eyes for an answer he didn’t know how to give. “And then, and then confused! He said he didn’t want her. He said he loved me and that it had all been a terrible mistake. He didn’t care about the baby or us having a baby he just wanted me. He said he loved only me and that was enough.”

 

Mulder stood stunned warm air now visibly coming from his nose. He didn’t know what he should do, what he should say. She stepped even closer to him dragging his eyes from the floor to hers. Their warm breath collided in the cold air as the rain seemed hell bent on drowning them and became even heavier. They were both soaked through now. He noticed she had stopped crying and the tone of her voice had softened. “I have spent six and a half years scientifically justifying every single feeling, decision and move I have made and secretly being pissed off that I had zero control over any of it. I should have spent the day recovering all of my research. In four years I have practically re-written what we currently know about DNA, virology, my cancer and discovered an entirely new life form. This information is imperative to the survival of mankind and in that moment I realised I wasn’t even thinking about that. I should have spent the day hiding my data and instead I spent it worrying and going crazy thinking that you had left; that you were sitting on a plane.” She faltered slightly; the anticipation of her words was bouncing wildly off of him. Her hands reached up to cup his cheeks, her soaked forehead leaned against his “and I never kissed you goodbye.” Not wanting to make that mistake again she pressed her lips softly to his, a slow peck, taking just a sample, testing the waters. She paused for a few seconds her lips still just millimetres from his. If he wanted to pull away this was his opportunity. He wasn’t willing to give her the same courtesy and without hesitation he gripped her hips and pulled her hips, lips and all into him. She circled her own arms around his neck to get even closer and kissed him the way she had been dreaming about kissing him for six and a half very long years.

 

 

 

 

Dungeons and Dragons by candle light had been put on hold for a whole hour now. It was Langley’s turn and he still hadn’t arrived back with the pizza. Byers had found a deck of cards in one of the hotel room cupboards and was dealing out another round of ‘last card’ when he heard a knock on the door next door. “Finally, Langly must be back with the pizza I just heard him knock on Mulder’s door.” He explained to Frohike who was coming out of the bathroom.

 

“Good I’m starved.” He took his seat at the table and lifted his cards to see what he had been dealt. Not a bad hand, he was on a losing streak in D and D and in last card. If anyone suggested poker he was most definitely out. His stomach growled loudly at him. “What’s he mucking around at?” He asked turning to the closed curtain and pulling it aside so he could see if his friend had taken himself and his dinner inside the apartment next door. He never expected to see them instead. “Oh sh…., Byers get over here and look at this.”

 

Byers jumped from his seat, his cards forgotten, he threw them down on the table to join Frohike at the window. “What are they doing?!”

 

“It looks like they are talking.”

 

“With God knows who watching.” He rubbed his beard troubled but couldn’t drag his eyes away from them. “We should go out there.”

 

“I’m not going out there!”

 

“We need to do something. Can you tell what she is saying?” Byers looked away choosing to watch Frohike watch them instead.

 

“No, she seems upset though. Oh. Um…”

 

“What?! What Melvin what happened?” He was sure one of them had been taken down.

 

“Aah she’s um. They are ah.”

 

“What?” Byers couldn’t stand it anymore he need to know what Frohike could see so he jumped back to the window and pulled back his side of the curtain. “Oh dear. Oh my. Um This is bad. You need to go out there.”

 

“I am not going out there, if you want to go out there be my guest.” He couldn’t drag his eyes away; it was like a scene from the end of one of those movies he hated. “I wish someone would kiss me like that.” He day dreamed.

 

Byers seemed to suddenly realize he was staring. “We shouldn’t be watching this.” He pulled his side of the curtain closed again and moved away but Frohike seemed glued to the window like it was an epic scene on a TV screen. “Frohike!”

 

Frohike didn’t seem to hear him. “Dude, let her come up for air would you.”

 

Byers snapped his side of the curtain shut too, blocking his view completely and almost taking the end of his nose off as he did.

 

 

 

 

He never wanted to stop kissing her but could feel the rain seeping into his open shirt and running down his back. He pulled away slowly. Their lips caught on each other for just a millisecond; they too didn’t want to let go. He opened his eyes and locked them with hers as he pecked her mouth again once, twice and then leant his forehead into hers. “Do you want to come inside?”

 

“More than anything.”

 

 

 

There was a small tap on the Gunmen’s hotel window. Byers and Frohike passed a cautious look before Frohike slowly pulled back the corner of the curtain and stared straight into eyes framed with blonde hair and black glasses. “Let me in!” Langley whispered harshly. Byers pulled the door open and a very wet Langley stumbled in carrying three wet boxes of pizza and rapidly creating a puddle on the floor. “Did you guys see that?”

 

“What?” Said Frohike

 

“That.” He pointed through the wall “Them.” He shook his wet jacket off and threw the pizza boxes over the game of cards. “I’ve been standing out there afraid to approach.”

 

“We saw them” said Frohike.

 

“Well what’s going on? Do you think they are coming up with a plan?”

 

“We don’t know.” Frohike pulled a wet piece of pizza out of the box and started eating it regardless.

 

“Where are those water glasses, Frohike?”

 

“In the bathroom, why?”

 

Langley looked at the wall that separated them from Mulder and Scully then looked back to his friends. “I think I know a way we can find out.”

 

 

 

Mulder and Scully stood in the dark hotel room shaking with cold and nerves. “The power is out.” Mulder stated the blinding obvious. “I’ll re-light the candle.” He fumbled over the draws for the matches and sparked one lighting the wick carefully. Scully stood hugging herself trying to get warm. “There are more candles in that drawer over there.” He pointed behind her. She followed his finger and found them handing him two more to light and place next to the bed.

 

There was a candle burning at each side of the bed and one in his hand when he stepped in close to her. Sparking a memory from their first case, on the first week they had spent together. “You’re freezing.” He placed the candle he was carrying onto the table to free his hands. “With the power out there’s no hot water for a shower.”

 

She seemed to stop shaking when she met his concerned stare again. She didn’t want him to see her as helpless, not now. She didn’t want him to see her the way that Michael did. “I can think of other ways to get warm.” She said smiling invitingly.

 

Invitation received, he bent down and kissed her again. Outside in the rain he was cautious but now he held nothing back. Her signal was clear, she wanted him to warm her and not just from the rain, from the cold of being out of his arms for so long. This was the biggest trust exercise they had ever found themselves in. How far could they go without going too far? He pulled her wet jacket open and began unbuttoning her soaked blouse. She pulled her mouth away briefly so she could eye his buttons and do the same for him, only two of his were done up so she tore at his singlet lifting it up and over his head. They both laughed slightly against each other’s mouths, a mutual pact to slow things down. She pushed away so she could run her hands over his chest and stomach muscles. His skin prickled beneath her hands and she had to bite her lip to stow her desire.

 

He felt giddy on the way she was studying him, with her lip between her teeth and her blouse almost completely unbuttoned exposing her lacy black bra. Her hands were now running up his arms, over his biceps, his shoulders until she was cupping his cheeks and kissing him again. He pushed her coat off of her shoulders, lowering it down her arms and letting it drop to the floor without removing his lips from hers. The blouse was next. It scraped down her arms soaked through with rain until it snagged on her wrists. He stepped a little closer connecting their naked wet torsos and pulling her restrained hands behind her. The pace of the kiss slowed, her arms were tied by her wet blouse behind her back and he tugged on them to restrict her further and then slipped his tongue softly over hers. Their chests rose and fell quickly against one another in tandem as their tongues found a slow rhythm of their own. He pulled swiftly on the sleeves of her shirt and her right hand popped free but the left remained snagged on the giant rock that sat on her wedding ring finger. It was a subtle reminder to them both but not subtle enough for them to ignore. Separating, they both looked down at the sleeve covering her hand knowing what lay beneath the wet silk. He pulled her hand up between them taking the rings in this finger and thumb through the closed shirt sleeve. They slid off her fingers so easily it was as if they were never meant to be there in the first place. He let them fall amongst the blouse to the floor freeing her hand and her heart and then caressed his lips across her palm. “You are freezing.” He said with her icy hand resting on his flushed cheek.” I’ll get you a towel for your hair.”

 

When he came out of the bathroom carrying the only towel in the room she was just finishing buttoning the white shirt he had worn to her party the night before. It fell almost to her knees and he had to take a moment to just take a step back and look at her. She caught him starring and smiled shyly “What?”

 

“Am I dreaming?”

 

She shuffled on her feet “Do you want me to pinch you?”

 

He moved quickly towards her “No!” He said throwing the towel over her head and rubbing it softly through her hair.

 

She took it from him rubbing a lot more firmly to dry her hair more effectively and his shirt rode enticingly high on her thighs. He watched completely unabashed as he removed his own wet trousers and climbed beneath the sheets of the bed. When her hair was as dry as the hotel grade towel was going to allow, she joined him under the covers. Nestling her back up against his front, his arm automatically snaked around her waist and his nose nestled into the back of her head. “Hmmm” she hummed settling in further. And for a while neither of them moved, content on simply holding one another, soaking in the warmth they were making together.

 

“Are you feeling warmer?”

 

She turned over her shoulder so her cheek rubbed against his, “Much, thank you”

 

He smiled against her cheek and then kissed it softly “What are we going to do, Scully?” She sighed heavily, playing with his fingers that lay against her stomach. “We need to make a plan.”

 

She rolled to face him hooking her leg over his hip and rolling her pubic bone over his erection.

 

His head fell back against the pillow and an unusual noise escaped from his throat. She should’ve given him the opportunity to recover but instead she just pressed harder, rocking her pelvis a little slower. “I think we need to get a few things out of the way before we start on a plan to save the world.”

 

If he could’ve, he would’ve laughed at how ridiculous that sounded but she was kissing his throat and then his shoulder. She was shuffling lower and lower in the bed and he was starting to believe he truly was stuck in a dream. If he was, he didn’t want to move. He was afraid if he did he might wake and his reality would put him back on that boat battling those waves.

 

 

 

In the room next door high tech eaves-dropping equipment came in the form of two tall drinking glasses held against the ear of a Gunmen and the wall that separated theirs from Mulder’s.   “Can you hear anything, Frohike?”

 

“Nothing, you?”

 

“Yeah, I can’t make anything out though, it’s just mumbling. I think they are talking too quietly.” Langley replied pulling his glass away from the wall and cleaning it with his shirt as if that might help pick up a better signal.

 

Frohike moved around to stand next to him. He could hear nothing at all, if Langley could hear whispers perhaps he was standing closer to them then he was. Byers was doing what he did best; pacing the small room. “You know gentlemen I don’t think we should be…..”

 

“Shhhh” Langley snapped and his ears pricked up. “I can hear something.”

 

Byers stopped pacing momentarily and concentrated on his two friends whose ears were pressed so firmly to the bottom of those glasses he considered finding a first aid kit for if they broke. “What? What can you hear?” he placed his hands on his hips with eager anticipation.

 

Langley looked a little confused and then quickly pulled the glass and his ear away from the wall. “I think…….”

 

Frohike laughed but didn’t pull his ear away as his friend had. “Mulder is praising Jesus Christ himself and here, I didn’t think he was the praying type.”

 

Byers gapped at him. Langley looked a little traumatized but pulled on Frohike’s arm forcing him to drag his ear away from the wall. Frohike couldn’t help but laugh at how mortified his two friends were. Really, he thought, how could this be surprising to them?

 

Langley shuddered and turned a little green. His fist went to his mouth as if he been a little sick in the back of his throat. “I feel like I just walked in on my parents.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was far too early to be awake. The birds had barely started their morning song but he was at least grateful he could hear them; it meant the storm had passed and on this morning in more ways than one. He shouldn’t wake her; she needed to sleep after spending half the night finding inventive ways to third base like teenagers on prom night and the other half planning a counter strike against an alien war. This was perhaps the last morning he would be with her like this, so, not wanting to wait a moment more he kissed her awake gently. She wriggled slightly, scrunching her nose like she was sharing her bed with an annoying fly buzzing around her head instead of the man who loved her. She soon caught on though, moving herself against him, returning his kisses and caresses. “I ordered coffee.” He whispered in her ear, managing to turn her so they were side by side, face to face.

 

“Hmmm.” Was the best response she could muster. At some point in the night his shirt had been removed allowing him to indulge in the feeling of rubbing his hand up and down her naked back and over every curve and corner on her side. A sharp wrap drew them reluctantly apart.

 

 

“Coffees here.” He pecked the tip of her nose and grabbed a robe so he could collect the coffee without scaring the waiter.

 

He intended on opening the door just enough to be passed the tray but as soon as he turned the handle the door was pushed to completely open and in strode his partner. He had a bag slung over one shoulder a file between his teeth and a medium sized cardboard box in his hands. Mulder had been so preoccupied he had completely forgotten that he was coming and therefore hadn’t called to tell him he didn’t need to, as he would be returning to Washington later that afternoon. “I never thought I’d say this Mulder, but it’s nice to see you. I thought I was going to die on the flight over here.” He dropped the bag and placed the box and file on the nearby table. “Geez it’s stuffy in here. How high do you have the heat on?”

 

Scully had scrunched under the covers in a hopeless attempt to hide. Mulder flapped like a fish that had just been pulled out of the safety of its bowl.

 

“That box was left on your desk last night. Its heavy I was tempted to open it” he noticed Mulder looked as though he was going into cardiac arrest. ”What? What’s wrong” Mulder was trying to look anywhere but at the bed. Curious, Malcom turned to what his partner clearly didn’t want him to see. “Holy Shit!” There was a woman peeking over the top of the covers and she clearly wasn’t wearing anything underneath them. He turned back to his partner “Well, this is a first.” Mulder shuffled nervously not knowing where to put himself. “Is this what you call chasing Aliens? Shit, Mulder, I could’ve told you years ago that women weren’t really from Venus. We could’ve saved a lot of tax payer’s money.” He laughed but realised quickly he was the only one, Mulder and his friend just looked extremely uncomfortable. It wasn’t that big of a deal in fact for the first time ever he thought Mulder might actually have joined the male species. He looked back at the woman who had found a shirt to cover herself with and was now sitting perched up in the bed. “Wait a minute, I know you.” He pointed to her but looked back at his partner who was still shuffling nervously. “Mulder. Do I know her?”

 

“Ah, Agent Malcom, this is Dr Kathryn Thompson.”

 

Why did it look like it took a lot of effort to get that name out? Malcom looked back at the woman who raised her hand and waved. “Kathryn Thompson” he repeated rolling that name around in his head. His head snapped suddenly in Mulder’s direction. “Mrs Thompson. Dr Kathryn Thompson.” He repeated every version of her name just to compound his level of disgust. “As in ‘*Mrs* Michael Thompson’. His wife! You slept with Michael Thompson’s wife?”

 

If he actually wanted Mulder to answer, he sure didn’t give him much time to do so “Well….”

 

Malcom picked his bag back up from the floor and grabbed the closed door. “I don’t believe it.” He yanked the door open. “I am not getting involved in this, I’m out of here. You are the craziest son of a bitch I know. I’ll see you back in Washington. If Skinner or Thompson doesn’t kill you before you can get on a plane.” The door slammed definitively behind him.

 

Mulder stood for a few minutes looking at the back of the slammed door. “So, that was my new partner.” He said turning casually back to her.

 

She smiled and nodded “Nice guy.”

 

“Yeah” There was a moment of quiet where they both stilled to study each other. They knew this moment was coming but neither wanted to be the one to initiate it. “So” Mulder said helplessly.

 

Scully slid her bare legs out from under the sheets to stand. At some point in the night the power had come back on and she had the sense to go and hang her clothes up in the bathroom under the heater and on the towel rack. She slipped through the bathroom door and closed it softly behind her. There was another knock on the door as she disappeared. The house keeper was behind it carrying their tray of hot coffee and a little jug of milk and cream. He took the tray and balanced it carefully on the small table next to the mysterious box Malcom had brought him. He was filling the mugs with coffee when the snick of the door made him look up at her coming back out of the bathroom. Her clothes were slightly ruffled now, creased from the rain. “Coffee?” He raised the pot in his hand but then realised she was playing with her rings and more importantly they were back on her wedding ring finger.

 

She circled them nervously “no. I think that I should just go.”

 

He sighed heavily. It was over. Their night together was over again but he wasn’t going to plead with her this time. She walked over the small space between them cautiously like it was a mine field. One wrong step and she would fall apart completely. Her shoes were next to the door and he watched as if it was in slow motion each foot slide into the small sole. She paused to savour the moment before she took the last step towards him. He gathered her in his arms holding tightly, allowing her to bury her head into his chest. She concentrated on listening to his heart beating beneath her ear, memorising the rhythm for later. He breathed out above her into her hair and the rhythm slowed and then quickened again. “Tell me it will all be ok, Scully.”

 

She pulled away so she could reach up to cup his face in her hands and pull him down to kiss her. This was a goodbye kiss, one of those ones that had solitude and depth but no seduction or promise. She was saying goodbye. “It’s going to be ok, Mulder.”

 

 

 

 

One hour later the coffee sat cold next to curdled cream and the still unopened/unmarked box. Mulder was busy throwing things in his travel bag. He had a plan now. A plan and a flight to catch and what he didn’t need was someone else knocking on his door but yet there it was. “You’re a little late with the pizza, Langley.” He called out knowing who it would be this time.

 

The three Lone Gunmen shuffled into their old hotel room like naughty school children. “So you are still going back to Washington then?” Byers asked. Mulder didn’t even bother to address them directly he was too busy zipping up his suit bag and case. He marched through to the bathroom to gather his toiletries without answering him. The Gunmen looked around the room and between themselves silently evaluating whether he hadn’t heard the question or was just blatantly ignoring them.

 

He threw the final bag into his case and sat down next to it on the bed. “I think that’s everything.” He scanned the room around them.

 

“Mulder, are you ok?” asked Frohike

 

“Fine. Are you three coming back to Washington with me?”

 

“Ah, we decided we are going to rent a car and drive back.” Said Langley

 

Mulder bobbed his head “Fine. Good.”

 

The Gunmen looked at each other, had he been drinking? He was certainly acting strange. “What’s with the box, Mulder?” Langley pointed to the mystery box sitting on the table.

 

“Oh yeah, Malcom said someone left that in my office last night. Chuck it here Langley.”

 

“Wait, Agent Malcom was here?” Byers sounded concerned again.

 

“Briefly.” Mulder replied vacantly.

 

Langley was playing with the box. “Its heavy Mulder,I’m not going to throw it.”

 

“So open it then.”

 

Langley looked a little nervous at the prospects of that.

 

“Is it ticking, Langley?”

 

He flicked his hair over his shoulder and leant down closer to the box.

 

Mulder jumped from the bed “Get out of the way.” He brushed them aside and started ripping into the box. Each Gunmen took three cautious steps back, as if a one metre radius could save them from a fatal blast.

 

Mulder put his hand in and moved it around a little inside the box, smiling at them mischievously. It was far too easy to spook these guys and sure enough, when he pulled his hand out suddenly they all jumped back simultaneously. It was like watching some bad physical comedy routine. Mulder couldn’t help but snicker “It’s just a rock.”

 

“Who would send you a rock?” asked Frohike.

 

Mulder tossed it in his hand. It was heavy and black with shallow veins and small, silver flecks through it. “I don’t know.” He studied it a little closer.

 

“I’m going to get my computer.” Said Langley “See if Professor Google can tell us what kind of rock it is.” The other two gathered around Mulder’s hand to study it a little closer.

 

Langley came back, pushing past them, his lap top already booted up in his arms “How would you describe it?”

 

“It’s rusty black” said Byers.

 

“No, I would say black with silver lines.” Tried Frohike.

 

“Just put in black mineral, Langley” said Mulder

 

Langley tapped away at the keyboard and the others gathered around him so they could gain a better view of the screen.

 

Frohike adjusted his glasses when the images flashed up in front of them. “Well it could be any of those.” He said unhelpfully.

 

Mulder put the rock against the screen and leaned over Langley so he could control the speed at which the images scrolled down. “There, it’s that one isn’t it?” he stopped abruptly holding the rock next to the picture on the screen. All three heads moved inwards to get a closer look and Mulder studied them for a reaction. “It is.” They all leaned back again. These guys spent too much time together. They were starting to move like one entity.

 

“Could be.” Langley was the only one to commit.

 

Mulder sighed and hit the curser on top of the rock. “Magnetite” he announced, moving away from them. They all looked up and watched him intently. “It’s Magnetite, I’m sure of it. We can take it to a specialist back in DC to confirm.” He placed it carefully back in the box.

 

“So who the hell would send you Magnetite, Mulder?” Asked Frohike.

 

“I think the bigger question is, ‘What the hell is it?’”

 

 

 

 

Scully walked along the concrete side walk with her pumps dangling from her fingers beside her. Her stockings were unwearable after the storm and then the haste in which they were torn from her body so she had ditched them in the trash can in the hotel bathroom. Now without them her shoes gave her blisters but she needed the walk home to slip back into the character she had played for the last six years. A large smile wrapped itself around her cheeks as she realised that this was her first ‘walk of shame’ in a very long time but then again she felt no shame in her stride only a new found confidence that what she was doing held some purpose again. Even though she was walking in the wrong direction, away from Mulder, she knew what she needed to do to turn that around for good. When she reached Katherine Thompson’s door she took a moment to gather herself. She closed her eyes and adjusted her wedding rings as if it could magically transfer her back to being his wife again. Her key slipped into the lock and turned and she carefully pushed the door open a little nervous about confronting Michael again. When he came home and declared his undying love for her in spite of everything she hadn’t been able to offer him an answer. She had simply slipped out of the door without so much as a ‘goodbye’. Her walk home was supposed to provide her with a plan on what she was going to say to him when she got here but instead her mind was reeling out images of Mulder lying below her, beside her, above her. She could still feel the warmth of his hand on her stomach and the scratch of his stubbly chin on her inner thigh. This conversation with Michael was just going to have to play out unscripted.

 

The room she walked into was quiet and for the first time she looked around and saw it for what it really was; a stage, a studio, a place where two people played husband and wife. Roll camera and in walked Michael, drink in hand already or perhaps he hadn’t yet been to bed. He studied her purposefully and then finished his drink in one long gulp and lay the empty glass down on the table.

 

She couldn’t look up at him “So you didn’t go running this morning then?”

 

He laughed at her before straightening out his crumpled suit and replied “No dear I didn’t.”

 

She finally looked up at him, knowing what was coming.

 

“You look as though you’ve had a good workout though.” He walked right into her personal space so he could tower menacingly over her. He knew his height was the only advantage he had in this situation and so he was going to use it to its maximum potential. “You smell like cheap hotel sheets and another man’s aftershave.” He snarled in her ear.

 

She refused to dignify that with a response so instead she circled past him and walked into the kitchen to get herself a glass of water.

 

He watched her like a hawk watches a mouse. “Talk to me Katherine!” He bellowed.

 

Her exterior was set to cool as she took a long sip of her water. “What do you want me to say Michael?”

 

“Tell me you didn’t sleep with him.”

 

She could split hairs and explain that actual intercourse did not occur but she didn’t think he would want to hear the details and besides the intimacy that was shared probably fell far beyond his comprehension. There was no simple answer so her eyes stayed focused and her chin jutted out to the side instead.

 

His hands scrapped down his face, the skin dragged painfully down his palms. He looked as if he was going to completely fall apart “You bitch!”

 

“Stop!” She yelled and he re-coiled, completely shocked that she would dare raise her voice to him. It wasn’t something that had ever happened before. “I’m not willing to have this conversation with you unless you are sober.”

 

“Oh we are having this conversation now. Tell me darling was it good? Is he bigger than me, stronger? Did he make you scream?”

 

She stormed out of the kitchen and headed to her bedroom. Michael followed closely nipping at her heals “Don’t walk away from me!” When he caught her he grabbed at her arm and spun her around to face him.

 

Acting on pure instincts she grabbed his other arm by the wrist and spun him towards the wall like he was a criminal she just bailed up in an alley way. His face was pressed hard against the wall and his arm pulled painfully twisted up his back. Locked in this position he struggled but quickly discovered he couldn’t free himself from her. “I am stronger than you. Remember that the next time you want to grab me like that again.” She pulled on his arm making him whimper softly. “I am going to take a shower. Go for your run, sober up and then we will have this conversation.” Slowly she released him. He was breathing heavily and couldn’t help but rub at the strained muscles in his shoulder as he looked at her, really looked at her and knew he no longer had any advantage at all.

 

 

 

She took her time in the shower. When she came back out into the living room she found him sitting on the couch with two steaming cups of coffee sitting on the table in front of him. He had changed and for all intents and purposes looked like the Michael she married again. He had that vulnerability about him, the way he did the night he came to her as a friend and left the next morning as her future ex-husband. After all that is all he could’ve ever been.

 

“I made you a coffee.” He said when he sensed her walking towards him from behind. She took the steaming cup and a seat opposite him. He had changed and seemed to have sobered and calmed. His voice was non-threatening and his posture was slumped in the chair. “Do you love him?” He sounded so pathetic. He was so self-centred he couldn’t see past the fact that she had been with someone else. The things he might actually find out if he were to look beyond his own giant ego.

 

“This isn’t about him Michael. This is about you and me.”

 

“You didn’t answer the question?”

 

She blew out a frustrated breath. She should win an academy award for this performance “No. I don’t love him.” She lied. “I don’t owe you an explanation Michael. Another woman carries your child.”

 

He laughed and looked to his lap, like he might cry. “It’s not mine.” He croaked

 

“What?” She tried not to sound too happy about that.

 

“I lied to you. Tania’s baby is not mine.” He clarified.

 

Sweet Saint of Karma, Scully had to hide her smile by biting her lip.

 

“She’s moving to England with her new boyfriend, the baby’s father. Its Ok Katherine, I know I got what I deserved.” He smiled sadly.

 

There was a painful silence between them for a while. Both sat looking at everything but each other. Michael looked as though he was fighting back tears and Scully tried to stave her guilt about the role she played in his misery. After all even though she cared very deeply for him as a friend and companion back then, she never actually loved him the way he used to love her.

 

“I blamed myself for a long time for your downfalls as a husband.” That was the truth. “After we lost our first baby and I told you we could never have another. I knew you regretted marrying me.”

 

“That’s not true.” He pleaded.

 

She put her hand up to stop him “Let me finish. You regretted marrying me and then somewhere along the line. The more money you made, the more attention you got from other woman, maybe even when we lost the second baby. But somewhere there you fell out of love with me and just needed the facade of having a wife at home.”

 

“Please Katherine I need you!” His grovelling only made her think less of him. “You came back to me that has to mean something.”

 

“I came back for my work.”

 

His eyes glazed over as he snapped back into his true self again. “Not anymore, you forget that I am still your boss.”

 

She sighed. Was he really stupid enough to black mail her. That ego never waned.

 

“You think you are so clever Katherine but I know that you do more than just what I pay you to do. I know you run your own projects down in that lab of yours. I can ignore my wife doing that but not one of my employees.”

 

She could tell he was bluffing he didn’t know anything about what she was working on. “You mean the research on my cancer treatment?” She smacked the smug off his face with that one. “That’s right, I had cancer and it may come back. I have been studying how to prevent and treat my kind of cancer given that I am the only one who has ever survived it this long.” Her poker face was better than his, he was rendered speechless. She pulled a computer flash drive out of her pocket and threw it on the table. “You might want to look at that.”

 

He started breathing quickly eyeing up the little memory stick like it was a snake in the grass ready to jump out and bite. “What is it?”

 

“That is an official FBI report.” She was as cool as ice. “It contains undisputable evidence that you and your associates have been scamming two major insurance companies out of, I believe the figure stands at 4.6 Million dollars.”

 

“Your boyfriend did that did he?” He narrowed his eyes at her.

 

“Agent Mulder wrote it yes. He has also gone back to Washington and left it with me to do with as I please.” She pushed it with her index finger in a circle around the table and then in his direction “This needs to stop. It is going to stop or I will send this file back to the FBI.” His face actually twitched. “I guess his is bigger than yours.”

 

He was panicking she could tell easily, he was scrambling for any kind of comeback he could muster. “Well.” He stumbled “What you don’t know is that we have someone on the inside taking care of that.” He pushed the flash drive with his finger back in her direction.

 

She felt a little panicked but of course she hid it well unlike him. Mulder had told her he suspected someone was bribing Michael to keep Mulder there. They both suspected the prize was covering up his insurance scam. They had their suspicions regarding who it could be but they didn’t know for sure. She was taking a big risk responding to him, but it was one she needed to take. “You mean the smoking man?” He looked like he was going to be sick and she knew her risk had paid off. She had hit the nail on the head. She smiled a secret wicked smile “You have been played Michael. The smoking man works for no-one but himself.” She pulled out her phone “Shall I call him? Get this straightened out?”

 

He was sweating and she was praying he wouldn’t call her bluff. Instead he scaled the small table and launched himself towards her. She thought he was going to strike her and stiffened to defend herself but he didn’t strike her. He embraced her and kissed her firmly on the mouth. Shocked she remained still and un-welding underneath him. He pushed her away with his hands firmly on her shoulders but kept very close in her space. “I’m all packed. I think I’m going to go now.” She nodded and tried to move away from him but he wouldn’t relent. “I’m not going to give up on us though. I like this version of you my darling wife.” He spat.

 

Her skin crawled beneath his hands.

 

“I’ll see you around Ms Thompson.”

 

 

 

 

#########

One week later.

 

 

Malcom adjusted his palms against the rope that bound his hands behind his back to his partner and a large wooden poll. “I hate this job Mulder!”

 

“Yeah bad day, sorry about that.” Mulder adjusted his own bound hands.

 

“You’re sorry! You’re sorry! You’re an asshole, that’s what you are. Sorry!” He tugged hard on his restraints hoping to cut the nerve supply to his partner’s hands. “The timer on that bomb is set to go off in ten minutes. I’m going to die today and I’m going to die tied to your sorry ass.” Mulder didn’t answer “And I hate this job!!” He yelled into the big empty warehouse. Mulder was fidgeting but he still didn’t answer him. “I liked it better when you ditched me on these kinds of cases.”

 

“Noted.” Mulder still fidgeted in his restraints, seemingly distracted.

 

“What was that thing, that man?! I mean I shot him five times. I’m not crazy Mulder I shot that guy five times, he took five to the chest and got up again and you! You killed him with a freaking rock!?” He laughed like a man losing his mind. “Who was that guy Mulder?”

 

Mulder had loosened his restraints and was rubbing his now free hands. He looked over at the timer sitting on top of enough explosives to turn their body parts into new decorations for the walls of this warehouse. He still had seven minutes to mess with his partners head a little. After all he did call him an asshole. “That was a super soldier.”

 

“A super what?” He tried to turn his head behind him enough to look at Mulder “Forget it. I don’t actually want to know.”

 

Mulder laughed to himself and was about to reveal that they were free when Malcom interrupted again.

 

“Well if this is my last night on the planet I want to confess that I don’t actually think that you are an asshole.”

 

Now that got Mulder’s attention.

 

“You are actually a really intelligent guy and a dam good investigator. I’ve learnt a lot from you these last few years.”

 

Mulder remained cautiously quiet.

 

“But you are an enigma. What happened to you? I heard your last partner did a real number on you and yet you never talk about her. So tell me then, if this your last day on earth, tell me which rumour is true?”

 

“Rumour?”

 

“Yeah did you kill her and bury her somewhere where no-one would ever find the body? Or did you break her heart and she left you?”

 

“They think I broke her heart?” He quipped and felt Malcom’s eyes dart nervously. His joke served mainly to hide his hurt. Did people actually believe he would kill her? This conversation needed to be over with and they needed to get within six miles of this building before it blew to smithereens. He stood and circled the pole to stand over a still bound Malcom. “So do you want to get out of here then?” he asked casually.

 

“I take it back. You are an Asshole.”

 

############

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Six months later.

 

“Open up geeks. I know you are in there.” Malcom pounded on the door to the Lone Gunmen’s headquarters. “Stop peeping at me through your little cameras and open the door.”

 

The door finally, reluctantly opened. “Agent Malcom, to what do we owe this tremendous pleasure.” Frohike said sarcastically.

 

Malcom pushed abruptly past him and starting pacing; scanning the room as he went. “Is he here?”

 

“Who?” asked Frohike.

 

Malcom towered over him “Don’t play dumb with me Frodo. Mulder, have you seen Agent Mulder?”

 

“We haven’t seen him in weeks.” Byers answered stepping out from his computer. They had invited Mulder over on the same day they had proposed to meet Agent Scully in their original plan. He hadn’t divulged any clue as to what he and Scully had planned that night so they were watching closely to see if they would see the plan in action instead. “Has something happened to him?”

 

Malcom turned to speak to Byers directly; apparently he could be more polite to someone wearing a suit similar to his. “He didn’t show up for work this morning and Skinners chewing me out on an X-File I wasn’t even involved in.”

 

“Well, why do you think we could help you?”

 

“Because I believe you were there.” Malcom said through gritted teeth. “Seven months ago Agent Mulder was investigating what he believed was a case of alien abduction and what turned out to be a bi polar psycho off his meds; still classed as missing. He was investigating a hospital run by a Dr Michael Thompson.”

 

Buyers swallowed nervously. He couldn’t hide the fact he was suddenly very nervous.

 

“You do remember! Well, Dr Thompson is on his way here as we speak. He called Skinner very early this morning to tell him his wife was missing and he suspected Agent Mulder had something to do with it.”

 

Byers stammered a little over his words. “Katherine, ah, Dr Thompson,ah, she’s missing?”

 

“Yes, now do you know where Mulder is or not? He isn’t picking up his phone or answering at home and I’ve been instructed to assist Dr Thompson with whatever he needs.”

 

“They’re missing?” Byers repeated unnecessarily.

 

“Yes. Catch up! Do you know where he is?” Malcom looked at them each in turn. Why did they look so scared? “Guys!”

 

Langley jumped at his sudden outburst “Ah we can get you into his apartment.”

 

Malcom’s phone rang from inside his jacket. He took it out and pointed it at Langley while it still rung “Good! Get your things, we’re going.” He pulled the phone to his ear “Malcom.”

“Yes Sir.”

“No Sir.

“Yes, of course Sir.” He snarled. Clearly this was the absolutely last thing he wanted to be doing right now. “I’m heading to his apartment right now. Have him meet us there.”

“Yes Sir”

“No I’m sure…”

 

The call was obviously disconnected abruptly. He pocketed it again, his face turning a slight tinge of rouge. “Let’s go!”

 

 

 

Michael Thompson was already standing outside Mulder’s apartment building when Malcom pulled up with the three Gunmen in his car. “Dr Thompson.” He called politely reaching out to shake his hand. God, you could smell the success coming off of him in waves. It was making Malcom even more nervous than when he was sitting in Skinner’s office this morning lying about what he had seen in that hotel room all those months ago. The Gunmen filed in behind him and Dr Thompson seemed to study them, slightly disgusted. “Ah, these are associates of Agent Mulder’s. This is…” He looked down the line of men. “Actually, I don’t remember their names.” He laughed nervously. “They can get us into his apartment.” He jumped past him and into the building hoping he wouldn’t ask any questions. Unfortunately, there was a slow elevator ride to get through first. They clambered in together, all eyes on the lit numbers on the top of the door. Malcom wiped the sweat from his brow and pulled his suddenly tight collar from his neck. “Tell me Dr Thompson, why do you think Mrs Thompson is here?”

 

The tall, handsome, extremely intimidating man was yet to say a thing. “Because Agent Mulder and my wife were old friends and colleagues.”

 

“They were?” Malcom squeeked.

 

Michael turned briefly to him and then went back to concentrating on the ascending numbers “They were.” The door pinged and opened. “And I believe they were having an affair.”

 

‘Well this is awkward.’ Thought Malcom

 

He stepped out of the elevator and presented his hand. “Lead the way.”

 

Malcom jumped then exited the small elevator car, followed closely by Byers, Langley and Frohike who kept their eyes firmly on the floor below them. They could hear the TV going behind the door of number 42. “Mulder?” Malcom called banging his fist on the door. When no one answered Byers pulled out the key and opened the door. The first thing they noticed was the keys and wallet sitting on the table in the middle of the room. “He left his keys.” Malcom pointed out reaching down to turn the television off.

 

“So did Katherine.” Said Michael. “Her bag and keys are still hanging on a chair at home, her car still parked in the garage. We aren’t currently living together but I went to see her late last night to tell her that we had a major computer glitch and I lost a good chunk of our research data in the labs. I got there around midnight and she was just, gone. The bed had clearly been slept in, her wine glass was drying on the rack but she was gone and it seems all of her belongings have been left behind.”

 

Malcom looked appropriately concerned before leaving the lounge to see the bedroom. “Mulder’s bed hasn’t been slept in.” He called from the room.

 

“He often sleeps on the couch.” Langley pointed to the discarded shoes, shirt and tie on the coffee table.

 

Malcom marched back into the lounge. “His bag and toothbrush are still in there. It doesn’t look like he packed anything.” He pulled his phone out. “I’m going to try and call him again.”

 

“I can’t see any signs a woman has been here.” Byers observed and was rewarded with a glare from both Malcom and Michael. Mulders phone ringing from his jacket hanging on the back of a chair saved him.

 

Michael grabbed the jacket and pulled out the phone as Malcom hung up his. “Strange, Katherine’s phone was still beside the bed too.” He began pushing a few buttons, searching the directory and message lists.

 

“Hey man, that’s his private phone.” Frohike stepped up. Malcom took his arm and glared at him to back off.

 

Michael simply ignored him and continued to snoop. “Hmmm” He put the phone down on the table carefully as if he had disturbed evidence at a crime scene. “Her number isn’t in any of his contacts or messages.”

 

“Maybe you are wrong about them.” Said Frohike.

 

“Maybe.” Michael replied. “So where the hell are they then?”

 

All five of them stared around the room as if at any moment they were going to jump out at them and yell ‘Gotcha!’.

 

“It’s strange.” Said Malcom picking up Mulders very expensive watch left sitting next to his tie. “It’s as if they just.”

 

“Disappeared” Byers finished.

 

 

 

 

 

Epilogue

 

Scully lay staring at the beautiful red flames of the cabin fire, warming her face, marvelling at the heat it was generating on her front. The sheepskin below her was soft and the man behind her was everything but. His mouth was exploring every inch of her neck and naked shoulder. “How long do you think we can keep this up?” She purred extending her neck a little further. She felt him smile against her drying skin.

 

Mulder rolled his hips against her bottom. “Thirty or forty minutes give or take. Twenty if you help out a little.”

 

She laughed and rolled over into his arms. He knew she wasn’t talking about making love again so he kissed her before she had the chance to correct him. Her lips melted onto his like a marshmallow to a flame. Her tongue was just as sweet as it rolled around his mouth. Their bodies found an instinctive rhythm against each other and he felt a delicious tingle run straight through him. “Maybe not” he breathed into her mouth.

 

She pulled away “Mulder. You know what I mean.”

 

That’s it. Tingle gone. He sighed running his hand over her naked back and bottom. “As long as it takes. How’s your neck?”

 

She dismissed it quickly; not really wanting to talk about it “Fine, I can’t even feel it.” she said brushing the fresh wound on top of where the implant used to lie. “Do you really think we are safe out here? Perhaps we should’ve taken the alternative route we talked about.” He opened his mouth to argue with her so she raised her voice a little louder. “I just think that….”

 

He put his finger tip to her lips halting anymore words from falling through them. “Stop. You hid from me in these mountains for a whole year and you said it yourself, we are biologically programmed to find each other. If I couldn’t find you then no-one is going to find us now.” He kissed the frown that formed between her brows. “Don’t give up.”

 

She conceded with a smile “This Magnetite …” she started as if they hadn’t already had this conversation three times now.

 

“It killed Greg Hosking and in three days we will be surrounded by it. We are the safest people on the planet and I believe the people we meet there will be able to help us. With your research and this mineral, I believe we hold all the pieces to solve this puzzle.”

 

Her long lashes lifted slowly so her eyes could meet his.

 

“Or at least give us a fighting chance.” She still looked a little unconvinced. “Scully, we have been driving and hiking for five days now. You just made me perform minor surgery on your neck.” He wriggled them into a sitting position so he was leaning against the cabins wooden bed and she sat straddling him, her thighs locked onto his hips. “Can we please, just,” he dug his fingers into her naked sides pulling her forward over him. The afghan that was balancing loosely over her shoulders fell to the ground. “Stop thinking for just a few hours.” She didn’t need much convincing. The heat from the fire instantly hit the skin on her back and his mouth running over her breast ignited the flames in her belly. She rocked herself over him gently, like waves in a summer ocean lapping against the shore. It wasn’t going to take twenty minutes, of that she was sure.

 

Thinking was what she did best. Thinking, analysing and predicting outcomes was all she had done in the last seven years, so a night off sounded pretty good. She was unsure if it was the absence of the chip or the circumstances they found themselves in but she felt different; liberated, free. Science and mystery, they were good at that and they were quickly realising there was something else they were quite good at too. She ground her body more firmly against his and could feel the change in him too. Then something scratched her chest, distracting her and causing her to pull slightly away. He was wearing a necklace; how had she not noticed that before?

 

“What’s this?”

 

She picked up the leather around his neck and ran it through her fingers finding a flat box pendent attached to it.

 

He looked at the box in her fingers and took it from her. “I brought it at that little village market we passed yesterday.” They both kept their eyes fixed to it. “We need to keep it safe. I know you have come up with a treatment plan if your cancer comes back but …”

 

“You put my chip inside there?” She sounded a little angry and it made him nervous. They both dropped the pendant and it fell against his chest. She placed her hands either side of it resting on his shoulders.

 

He ran his hands down the full length of her back and the tension seemed to leave her. “It’s a burden you have carried for so long, Scully, and it was never yours to bear alone.” He leant into her connecting their foreheads, the tips of their noses and just a whisper of their lips. “Let me carry it for a while.”

 


End file.
